The Great Adventure 2: Revenge of the Shadow
by Jason de L'Epee
Summary: Sonic heads south to Sapphire Bay but runs into trouble when a prisoner that remarkably resembles Sonic escapes from Prison Island and causes havoc, and Sonic gets blamed for it. What's going on this time?
1. Part 1

**THE GREAT ADVENTURE 2: REVENGE OF THE SHADOW**

by _Jason de L'Épée_

Sonic and other related characters are coyrighted by Sega Productions, Sonic Team and Archie Comics. Any other additional characters are copyrighted by Jason de L'Épée. The original game concept, _Sonic Adventure 2: Battle_, is copyrighted by Sega Productions, Nintendo and Sonic Team ©2001, 2002.

FOREWORD: I had this fic in mind ever since I started "The Great Adventure: The Legend of Chaos," the adapt of _Sonic Adventure_, but never really had started it until I finished the game _Sonic Adventure 2: Battle_,early in the production of TGA, and that it would make a great sequel to TGA. Out of all the Sonic games, the storyline in here is the most intriguing in my opinion, but not far ahead from _Sonic Adventure_.

As you'll see soon, I don't start the fic in a typical manner, with a tragic prologue dealing with Shadow fifty years before the events of SA2. I hope it won't turn your attention away from the story I'm about to tell. I'd like to credit LoneWolf for helping me with some of the problems I had comprehending about the power of Chaos, such as the usage of Chaos Control.

You may notice references to the past that aren't in my fics. I plan to write fics about those events but they may be a long while. If you email me at I may give you a few spoilers about what I have in store for the fics. Take note: those may change within the next three years.

If the beginning of this fic seems to be a hair reminiscent to K. M. Hollar's SA2 adapt beginning (the birthday scene), I apologize if this causes alarm. I tried several different ways to begin this but they turned sour quickly. I needed to find a way to have Sonic have a few tools before the actual adventure began.

The ending of the fic, after the battle with "FinalHazard," you may note that it is reminiscent to the beginning of "The Fall…and Back Again." That is because "The Fall" shows the ending events of SA2 through Shadow's eyes and experience, while this fic will show it through everyone else's eyes.

**Final Deadline: January 31, 2007**

Chapter 1: Break-In

"This is your time, this is your dance,

Live every moment, leave nothing to chance,

Swim in the sea, drink of the deep,

Embrace the moment of all you can be…"

"This is Your Time"--Michael W. Smith ©1999

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It was a large land-mass, floating in the sea of red-colored sky of late-evening. It had a large mountain range in the center, not like a long slender range like the Rockies or the Andes of our world, but more like the Himalayas: round and centrally-located.

Several forests dotted the landscape, and if I told you every single area of this island, it would take all day. I will just say now that it was like a mini-continent. It was Angel Island, or the Floating Island more commonly called.

Two figures stood on a high hill near the mountains, overlooking a flat plain which were dotted with ruins. One was a red echidna wearing spiked gloves and hard, rugged shoes. The other was a blue hedgehog wearing large gloves and two blood-red shoes with white straps with brass buckles, and there were high-lights on the heels of the shoes.

"Enjoying yourself, Sonic?" the echidna said, whose name is Knuckles.

"Yeah, turning fifteen tomorrow doesn't feel any different though. And why won't you let me in that room in your house, Knux? Are you afraid I'll wreck a vase?"

"No, it's a glass display."

"Huh?"

Knuckles chuckled. "I'm kidding."

Sonic moaned. "Geez, I hate it when people hold secrets from me. Why are we out here anyway?"

"You wanted to see over the Marble Gardens and you are."

"Yeah, the last time I was here was when we were talking about the visions with Tikal and Chaos."

Knuckles glared at Sonic. "Don't remind me; he packed a punch."

Sonic chuckled. "Hey, where is that pyramid where you had the Master Emerald?"

Knuckles scanned the ruins, and pointed towards an outcrop of rock near the Island's edge. "There, you can just see it if you look hard enough."

Sonic had to squint in the gathering darkness. "Where? All I see is a piece of rock in a round valley!"

"You're looking at it."

Sonic shrugged. "I guess I'll have to see it in the light."

Knuckles looked around. "I guess it is getting dark. Let's go back to the house."

Sonic and Knuckles began to take the hike down through Marble Gardens and to the other side where Knuckles lived in a large hut, if it could be called a hut, for it was large enough to hold a family of four.

"This place looks a little creepy in the darkness." Sonic looked around at the dark ruins.

"Do you think so? I don't."

"That's because you live here. This is everyday life for you. I live in a forest, not an old stone city where Chaos had killed all the residents where they stood. It's like a graveyard or something."

h

Knuckles chuckled. "There's the hut."

Sonic peered at the darkness through the windows. "Why is it so dark inside?"

"I didn't leave the lights on."

"But I thought we left Tails back at the house."

Knuckles shrugged. "Maybe he went to bed early."

Sonic stared perplexed at the hut, but had some strange suspicion growing in the back of his mind.

Knuckles entered first, but didn't turn on the lights.

"What is he up to?" Sonic said quietly to himself, and followed Knuckles in. "Knuckles?" he called out. "Where are you?"

"I'm here, in the other room!"

Sonic stalked his way towards Knuckles' voice, arms stretched forward to keep from running into a wall or a couch.

"Knux? Where are you?"

No answer came from the crimson echidna. Sonic began to really wonder what was going on. He took one more step forward, and his foot fell on something that crackled like light paper under his foot.

Suddenly, the whole room he stood in was ablaze with lights! Sonic was so surprised and unused to the light that he stood in the middle of the alit room blinking.

"SURPRISE, SONIC!" several people shouted at once in unison and cheered.

"What's going on?" Sonic called out, completely surprised.

"It's a surprise party, Sonic. Happy Birthday," a young fox with two tails said, approaching Sonic with a party hat and a wrapped present.

Several party noise-makers sounded while several people brought in presents, cake and other stuff.

"Why, thanks guys!" Sonic said, as Tails the two-tailed fox put a party hat on top of Sonic's head.

Sonic knew everybody there; there was Tails and his chao Frosty, Dash, Sonic's chao, the Chaotix, Knux's girl-friend Julie-Su, the Knothole gang, everyone!

Sonic was led to sit in a chair as the people who got presents for Sonic gave them to him one by one.

Knuckles was first. He gave Sonic a shoebox-sized box. Sonic tore it open and lifted the gift from a sea of packing peanuts.

"Wow, nice belt." Sonic stood up and looked over it. It was a golden-colored belt with seven studs all of them embedded with jewels the size of half-dollars. Each jewel was a different color. "These things don't look like Chaos Emeralds. What are they, Knux?"

"Remember the time several years ago when you said that you'd give anything to have a simpler way to go Hyper without making a trip to Hidden Palace? Well, here's the answer. It took me a while, but I was able to make Super-Emerald-miniatures to put in the belt," Knuckles explained.

"Sweet!" Sonic clipped on the belt and walked around in a circle, looking generally down, trying to think of something. "How do I start it?"

Knuckles scratched his head, as if he left out something on a project that was old. "I haven't thought of that." He shrugged. "I guess we'll have to figure it out."

Sonic sat back down, but someone said. "Hey, where's your belt?"

Sonic looked down, and was startled to see that it wasn't there. He could feel it, but couldn't see it. "What's with that?"

Knuckles chuckled. "I was about to tell you; the yellow one bears the power of invisibility, so it works with the golden color of the belt to make it vanish from sight. I can't really explain it any other way."

Sonic looked a little confused. "Ok, that's a bit weird, but I think I understand."

Knuckles shrugged. "Can you think of a better theory?"

Sonic sat back and crossed his legs. "I guess not…"

The next gift came from Tails and Sally.

"Another shoebox?" Sonic asked. "Is this the year for belts?"

Sally touched Sonic's shoulder, suppressing a chuckle. "Just open it."

Sonic opened the box, and found what normally comes inside a shoebox.

"Shoes!" Sonic lifted out a pair of shoes, but these weren't an ordinary pair of shoes. These were Soap-shoes: shoes with large metal groves that were used for grinding, kind of like skaters do with roller blades without the wheels. The heels were large and had large highlights on them, excellent for high speed.

"Aha! These will be fantastic."

"It cost us a lot to buy them; Sally helped out the most," Tails said.

Sally smiled. "It was only a little bit; we thought you'd like these."

"Like them? This is spectacular!" Sonic gave Sally a peck on the cheek.

Sally blanched and slapped Sonic's cheek, but not in a hard matter, for she was too surprised. "You are such a weasel, Sonic!"

"I thought Fang was," Sonic said, grinning like a chimp. (He was of course talking about Fang the Sniper which Knuckles had trouble with the year earlier, while Sonic, Tails, Frosty and Dash were taking on a new creation by Dr. Robotnik.)

A chuckle spread through the room and Tails said below his breath. "Good thing Amy's not here." He giggled at the thought.

Sonic rubbed the reddening spot on his cheek, but appeared not to mind it, for he was smiling at the same time.

Several other gifts that I will not discuss save one were also bestowed to Sonic. One was another present from Tails that he had built over several months: A wrist communicator that would go on his right wrist and Tails would be able to communicate to him from the Tornado. That was really no big deal, but what really was time costly was that he was experimenting with chaos-power shielding so if Sonic was close to a Chaos Emerald, or in Super transformation, the com wouldn't sizzle away. It may experience a brown-out if exposed to a concentrated amount of chaos energy, but Tails reasoned that if it could last against Super and Hyper, it could last through just about anything.

Then, Bunnie and Antoine carried in a large vanilla cake that Antoine made. Rotor and Knuckles carried in a large bowl of cherry punch. The Chaotix were carrying pizza with assorted toppings. (Mighty carrying the most for obvious reasons.) Sonic needless to say pigged out that night, and lay in the same room with Tails, moaning at eating too much, to which Knuckles would say:

"Good grief, sounds like a dumb cow that ate too much corn."

After Knuckles checked around the house, he turned in and just listened to Sonic's moaning in the next room.

Unfortunately, the moaning covered someone's footsteps outside. It was taps of hard-heel boots, and if one was listening closely enough, he would've figured out that they were high-heeled boots.

The darkness covered the entire island, and that covered whoever was sneaking around in the Marble Gardens near Knuckles' hut.

Then, on the planet itself, another intruder had invaded another island.

-----

"Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Intruder sighted outside the forest and heading towards the underground base! All personnel intercept and apprehend the intruder! Emergency battle procedures initiated! This is not a drill!"

Siren blared. Men wearing black suits armed to the teeth ran around to get into battle-stations. Battle-droids were activated to be put into battle. The whole base was put into battle mode when something was spotted coming towards the underground branch of the base, where secrets were kept.

The intruder at first glance seemed to be a large robot with two large legs with large feet, but no arms. A large gun was mounted on the rear with enough firepower to punch a car-sized hole into a four-foot-thick cement wall. This contained missiles, and a deadly laser system of which you want to avoid completely.

On another glance, one would see that it was just a walker, driven by a squat man that stood over six feet tall and had a very large moustache. His eyes were covered by black eye-glasses and wore a pair of goggles on the top of his bald head.

Just in front of the cannon, standing alert like a cat looking at its owner was another robot, shaped vaguely like a hedgehog.

It was the evil genius, Dr. Ivo Robotnik in a smaller, two-legged version of the Egg Walker (the one that Tails had destroyed two years before), and the robot with the cannon was Metal-Sonic, the chief assassin robot.

Robotnik, or Eggman where some people were beginning to call him because of his body-shape and the catchiness of Sonic's whit, was closing in on the top floor of the underground base vein, shooting his Vulcan Cannon to destroy all "interferences" in the way.

He laughed evilly. "This is just too easy. I'd rather face that blasted hedgehog, Sonic, if I was just doing this for sport. But even he won't keep me from my new evil plan."

The walker stomped its way into the base, and punctured through a door that was sealed with four electrical seals.

"Level 1 security door breach! All forces intercept intruder!" a warning alarm said.

"I expected much more interference from these pathetic humans," Metal-Sonic commented.

"So have I." Robotnik twiddled with his moustache. "I guess I overestimated them. If Chaos hadn't revolted, I could've ruled the human colonies without much interference at all."

Despite the fact that this was the stronger GUN military base, Robotnik was receiving little interference. Metal-Sonic had come in case the resistance proved harder, but he felt that he wasn't needed that night, so he just sat back against the high missile cannon, playing observer.

"Level 2 security door breach! Take evasive actions and reform onto levels 3, 4 and 5."

"Thanks for the warning, fools." Robotnik muttered. Metal-Sonic watched on as the Egg Walker stepped onto a lift, which lowered him to the third floor.

There they met more resistance, but the Egg Walker proved to be efficient despite its large size and clumsy appearance. The next two levels were pretty much the same. Level 6 proved a little harder, but still easy; they came to a room where twenty humanoid robots stalked up and prepared to fire.

Robotnik fired repeatedly with his homing missiles and just out of personal amusement, Metal-Sonic fired a laser from his arms at a robot or two that Robotnik missed.

When they came to the bottom of the seventh floor, Robotnik found a set of doors that were as wide and tall as a parking garage.

"Doctor, these are doors that are used for cryogenic freezing. The secret weapon that you seek may be in here if it's organic."

Robotnik paused as if thinking, then blasted the doors open. The temperature once they came in grew cold. Metal-Sonic, being a robot, didn't mind it, but Robotnik didn't appreciate it.

"Let's make this quick and get out of here, for it must be only forty degrees in here."

The walker stomped towards a computer console with a clang after another. Behind it was a pit that led into a cryogenic freezing chamber. It was open and on a platform was an ovular chamber that was roughly 5x4 feet.

"That is the secret weapon that this military is protecting?" Robotnik said, a little stunned.

"It appears to be." Metal-Sonic seemed just as perplexed as Robotnik.

"It's a lot…smaller then I expected." Robotnik typed a few keys on the computer. "Enter user password. The word is M-A-R-I-A. Maria." Robotnik typed in the letters on the keyboard and pressed "return."

"Now put the Chaos Emerald that we stole into the computer console right there, Mecha." Robotnik pointed towards a conical dent on the keyboard pad.

Metal-Sonic withdrew a light-blue gem out of a holder, and he had a glove on his hand for Chaos Emeralds are harmful to robots for they had electromagnetic properties. The human took the Emerald and placed it into the slot.

In the pit, the platform below began to rise to meet them. Several hydraulic hisses came up from the bottom as it rose more and more. Mist rose to meet them as the chamber rose higher and higher. Metal-Sonic's "eyes" got fogged, much to his annoyance, but he wiped it off to see what was coming up.

It stopped when it came level to the two's faces. The pod opened and whatever was in it stood up even in the darkness of the underground room, they both could tell that it was a Möbian hedgehog.

"What? Sonic? How could you be here?" Robotnik was surprised and furious.

"Doctor! That is not the hedgehog, but it is indeed a hedgehog, a strange one!" Metal-Sonic said; his eyes more keen then the human's.

Robotnik took a second look. "What? You're not Sonic at all! Who are you?"

The figure crossed its arms: it was a jet-black hedgehog with red streaks that ran down his twisted spines, his arms and legs. He wore brass anklets and wristlets and black ones with red buckles. His shoes were white with red heels and sole-borders. A large groove in the middle of the shoe was present.

It spoke with a deep, menacing voice. "My name is Shadow; I am the ultimate life-form." He looked down at Robotnik and Metal-Sonic. "Since you've been so kind to release me from this chamber, I will grant you one wish."

"A wish?" Robotnik was amazed. "What do you mean?"

Metal-Sonic looked up at Shadow, and Shadow looked back. Their red eyes met for three seconds. The robot was very intrigued and was trying to comprehend the perfect look on him.

His thoughts were interrupted when heavy clanging footsteps coming closer every second.

Robotnik swore. "Now what?"

"It sounds like one of the military walkers, a Mech-Warrior." Metal-Sonic stated, looking up.

Suddenly, something lit up under Shadow's feet, and he lifted up in the air. On closer examination, one would see that Shadow was wearing hover-skates, a bit like wheel-less roller blades.

"I will destroy that robot." Shadow looked down at the two. "I will need that Emerald."

Robotnik was initially shocked at Shadow's knowledge of his possession of a Chaos Emerald, but tried to hide it. "What makes you think that I have a Chaos Emerald?"

"You released me from freezing, and if I know correctly, which I do, a Chaos Emerald is needed to activate the freezing machinery. How else would you release me?"

Robotnik was beginning to admire this hedgehog; his logic was flawless. "Mecha, give him the Emerald."

Metal-Sonic put back on the glove, took out the Emerald, activated the jet-engine on his back, and handed the Emerald to Shadow.

The robot seemed to stare at Shadow for a while, and Shadow noticed this.

"Yes, I am extraordinary. Behold the power I possess!"

Suddenly, a bright bluish flash erupted from Shadow's hand, and he disappeared. Robotnik and Metal-Sonic looked around, and at first thought that the hedgehog had betrayed them, but Metal-Sonic looked back and found Shadow stalking towards a large, twelve-foot tall robot with large thick legs.

This was one of the three top Mech-Warriors that G.U.N. had in its arsenal. This one in particular was B-3x Hot Shot. It had a superior weapons system, compared to the two others, but had more trouble maneuvering.

There was a pilot inside, and he reported in to the headquarters. "This is B-3x Hot Shot, reporting in. I have not located the intruder, but I have located a Möbian within the cryogenic freezing chamber, over."

"Describe the Möbian, Hot Shot, over." someone said over static over the insider communicator.

"Visibility is poor, but it appears to be a black hedgehog. It has something glowing blue in its right hand, over."

"Copy, Hot Shot. Consider it armed and dangerous. Apprehend it if possible, destroy it otherwise, over."

"Roger, over and out."

The feet of the walker lifted up so the craft could now fly around, and it flew towards Shadow, spraying bullets in his direction, but just before the bullets got within an inch of Shadow's body, he lifted the Emerald and disappeared in a flash of light.

The pilot was obviously baffled about the disappearance, but he didn't have time to think for suddenly, a ball of black-and-red spines suddenly struck the glass wind-shield with a crack!

The craft shook violently, but stabilized. The chase was on again, but now it seemed that bullets would not do the trick. The pilot thought a lock-on laser would yield more results.

It turned 'round facing the black hedgehog that was glaring at the pilot inside, not the robot necessarily, glaring full of hate.

Inside the cockpit, the cross-hairs on the computer locked on to Shadow's silhouette, and a ball of energy was building within the large cannon on the underside of the flying craft. In a few seconds, it fired a ball of energy the size of the hedgehog himself!

The hedgehog jumped upwards and dashed away, the ball detonating right where Shadow's feet stood scarce seconds before.

Then, the craft lowered and the feet touched down on the hard metal floor. Two large missile turrets opened on both sides of the cockpit and both launched small missiles at Shadow, who kept swerving back and forth, advancing towards the Hot Shot.

The pilot saw what was coming and tried to lift off into the air again, but Shadow was too quick on his feet! He rammed into the cockpit window in a flurry of spine-ball attacks that could pulverize a car within minutes. He then kicked in the front glass panel and proceeded to smash anything inside, including the pilot. He was thrown out bodily by Shadow by a mighty jerk, and Shadow smashed the Chaos Emerald into the electronics.

Since Chaos energy and electricity can't cooperate together in most electronics as I've stated before, the whole craft began to spark, and sizzle. Shadow dashed away as the entire craft suddenly was engulfed in flame, turning the greenish Mech-Warrior into a burnt black, the paint bubbling and pealing.

The pilot was trying to crawl away to safety, but no such luck; Shadow wasn't finished with him. He glided on his skates and grabbed the poor pilot by the collar of the uniform, holding the man's face into his own red eyes.

"Be warned, pathetic human; this is just the beginning," Shadow hissed, his voice spilling venom. He then slapped the pilot across the face violently, strong enough to nearly turn the neck, knocking the poor man unconsciousness.

Shadow then stood very still, facing away from anyone who witnessed the battle.

"Destroying that robot was fantastic!" _Even Sonic never fought so aggressively or intimidated the victims before. _"So, Shadow, you are the military's top secret weapon, are you?" Robotnik asked, awed.

Shadow did not move, but stood staring into space, arms crossed.

"What did you mean that you grant Dr. Robotnik a wish?" Metal-Sonic said.

That seemed to be Shadow's cue to some people, for he turned his head just a little bit. "We will need more Chaos Emeralds."

"Shadow, WAIT!" Robotnik called out, since Shadow began to walk away.

"I will be waiting for you…in the central control room…of the space colony ARK. Be there after the next morning after tomorrow. I expect you there, doctor. Do not disappoint me." Shadow spoke every syllable clearly; he meant business.

"ARK?" Robotnik stood up in his walker, and stared down towards Shadow.

"You heard me. If you expect to rule the world, you'll need to go now." Shadow then disappeared in a flash of light.

Robotnik was stunned again. "How did he know that I had goals to control the world? Did I tell him, Mecha?"

"No, doctor; he has some strange insight," the robot replied.

"Hmm," Robotnik twiddled with his moustache. "He said we need more Chaos Emeralds. We'll need to find more. Let's go."

Chapter 2: Trouble

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Knuckles was stirring in his bed early in the morning; he didn't know what was making him restless in his sleep, but then, he felt the whole Island shake as if it crashed into a pool of water. His eyes snapped awake, and he leapt out of bed. Nearly hitting the door running and not even bothering to put on his shoes, he ran out the front door, and towards the old Emerald shrine, for it gave an excellent view to confirm his worst fear.

When he reached it, he saw that the Island had touched down in the sea.

But why? The Master Emerald should be still in Hidden Palace deep within Lava Reef…unless…

He ran back towards the hut, and found that the rest of the gang, Sonic, Tails, the chao and the Chaotix were wide awake being awoken by the splash-down.

"Knuckles! What happened?" Sonic said, hurriedly strapping on his shoes, the new ones if you must know.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out." He pointed to the Chaotix. "Stay here, and I'll call you. Sonic, Tails, follow me!"

Knuckles marched out of the hut, followed by Sonic, Tails, Dash and Frosty, and deeper into the ruins, until they came to a hut, overgrown with trees, and nearly buried half-way up, for the door was only big enough to crawl through. When inside, the floor was further down beneath ground level, and there was a round disk with three legs sitting in the center. It was a pressure-sensitive transporter.

Knuckles went on first, followed by Sonic, then Tails.

There was a sensation of movement, and every cell in their bodies tingled from the surge of energy, then the stone hut suddenly changed into the blue, marble-like walls and floor. In the center was a large middle pedestal surrounded by seven smaller pedestals with large jewels the size of a small desk on top of each one. Something was amiss, and it took no thinking to figure it out. The Master Emerald was gone.

Knuckles stared at the middle pedestal and Sonic could feel the anger radiating off him like a gas oven on full power.

Tails stared at the empty pedestal. "Again? Who did it this time?"

Knuckles now started looking around and in several caverns, and the chao, who never have been to Hidden Palace, explored the caverns and gawked at the Super Emeralds.

"Whoa! Look at this blue one here! It's as big as my bed!" Dash exclaimed.

"Forget that blue one; look at this white one! It's beautiful!" Frosty replied, admiring the glow. (The white one was her favorite, and always admired anything shining white, for it reminded her of the Chaos Emerald.)

A few minutes later, Knuckles found some footprints, and it wasn't hard to figure out what kind of shoes made them: They were very basic, as if someone used an iron to make the sole, for it appeared so, followed by a small half-circle. They were made by high-heels.

"Sonic, Tails. Look." Knuckles showed the prints to Sonic and Tails. Sonic didn't think much of it, but Tails had some strange idea that he knew what these came from.

"Tails, do you recognize these?" Knuckles asked.

It took Tails a moment, but suddenly the summer of the previous year came to his mind. "Her?"

"Yes," Knuckles breathed. "I believe so. She came back."

"I'm sorry to interrupt this conversation," Sonic cut in. "but who's 'her?'"

"Rouge the Bat," Knuckles started. "She came first to the island when Tails was here; she knocked out Tails and took the Master Emerald when we were all distracted. That's where Tails got the seal on the back of his right shoe."

"Oh, that! I remember now! I was sick that time." Sonic said, recalling that August.

Tails glanced down at his right foot, and saw the carving. Slightly warn, but still there.

"It appears she came back…" Knuckles said, hands curling into fists. "But she won't succeed."

"But where could she take it?" Sonic said. "We're in the middle of nowhere, and there's no way to take it anywhere!"

"We're not 'nowhere.' We're just inside twenty miles from the Sapphire Bay coast. I make it a habit of checking out locations every day."

"Sapphire Bay? Is that where the big city is where the big monster attacked?" Dash cut in.

Sonic ignored him. "That would mean she would try to get to the one of the two cities. But how could she get there?"

"No doubt in the previous year, she studied how to program teleporters to go to a desired location. So, she took the Emerald and made off with it." Knuckles rubbed his chin in thought. "Just where did she teleport to…"

"…and from where did she do it from?" Sonic added.

"Yes…"

"I have an idea," Tails said. "Since she'd likely teleport to the mainland, there are at least three places she'd go to: Sapphire City, Santiago City and everywhere in between. What's in between, Knuckles?"

"If I remember right, it's the Dagro Desert: One of the mainland tribes used to live there before they died out."

"Right. I think we should split up, one of us to each location."

"That sounds like a good idea," stated Sonic. "Dash and I can take Sapphire City, since I'm going there anyway."

Knuckles propped up his chin with his fist. "But, Tails, suppose you find Rouge. What will you do?"

Tails thought about it. "Well, I can call you on the communicators, now that Sonic has one now. And I can always just spy on her from the Tornado. Besides, I can just give Frosty her Emerald and Rouge wouldn't go near."

Knuckles considered this. Is it the best way?

"C'mon, Knux, you won't here a better idea even if we stood here thinking for weeks, I'm sure," Sonic added.

Knuckles sighed. "I'll take the Dagro desert. I'm used to deserts more then you guys are."

"And I'll take Santiago City," said Tails. "I'll keep you informed on radio. It'll take me a while to fly out for I parked it in Echidnaopolis. Good luck, Knuckles!"

Tails took off in a sprint, followed by Frosty in a flurry of wings. "Hey, Tails! Wait for me!" Sonic scooped up Dash and followed Knuckles who began stalking towards the nearest teleporter.

-----

Sonic had teleported to the docks near Emerald Coast. He took a nice glance around.

He sighed. "My, it's good to be back here. Looks like they fixed the docks from Free Willy."

"Huh?" Dash asked. "Who's Free Willy? Is he a chao?"

Sonic chuckled. "No, he's a killer whale. For some reason, he attacked the docks where I was standing. I can't explain it."

Dash stared at the water as if the killer whale himself would rise up and attack them too. He knew he didn't like water, and now he had a reason.

Sonic chuckled to himself after seeing Dash's look at the sea, and began trotting towards Sunset Resort, having a mind to book a room to stay in.

He did so when he got there, but didn't settle in there, for he decided to walk the Square, and see if anyone resembled a bat that Knuckles' described.

He left Dash behind in the hotel, much to the chao's disappointment and the chao threw a ring-eyed fit when left behind, but when Dash found out how to operate a remote control, he was entertained for hours.

Sonic left the hotel and picked up a newspaper in the lobby and took it with him. He glanced at the front news, and found that a nearby island, Prison Island where the military of the colonies was stationed, experienced a break-in by someone they unidentified, but whatever happened, something escaped there, and are looking for it.

"Looks like things are cooking, again," he muttered.

Sonic got some wild ideas in his head about trying to hunt down whatever escaped. It could be a dangerous criminal or something, and who knows? There could be a reward.

He then looked up and saw that several police cars were about.

"Wow, this guy must be dangerous if all these coppers are out."

Suddenly, Sonic heard a voice that echoed throughout the Square. "Freeze! Get your hands up slowly, and face towards the building!"

Sonic looked around, and was wondering who was shouting through the bullhorn (which explained the booming echoes) and to see who he had spoken to. Then, his eyes opened in his mind and saw that several cop cars had pulled up around him and several policemen had surrounded him, weapons drawn.

"What the heck is going on?" Sonic thought out loud.

The officer, who was on top of one cruiser with the bullhorn, repeated the order.

"All right, all right!" Sonic obeyed, and one officer strode forward and yanked his arms back…

"Ah! Easy! Easy!" Sonic complained, when his arms shot in pain from the shock.

…and handcuffed his hands behind his spined back.

"Hey, you guys? I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, the guy who beat Perfect Chaos the water monster two years ago!"

"I don't care what you did, Mr. Hedgehog. You are under arrest."

"WHAT?"

The officer recited the Miranda rule to Sonic, who was in too much shock to listen, and was a little upset understandably.

Sonic was shoved in a car and two officers seated on either side of him with large shotguns. There was no getting out.

"Oh, what the heck did I do?" he moaned.

-----

Knuckles strode through the hot desert on the mainland, sweating and nearly blinded by the sun reflecting off the sands. He didn't really notice this as much as one would, for his head was ringing with the panicked signal from the Emerald.

"Rouge, when I get done with you, you better have a will drafted."

He came into several ruins, and each step made the signal a little bit stronger, until he couldn't hear is footsteps on the gravel-like road. Then, he came to a shrine, and heard panting which was high-pitched.

"Score."

He clipped on his shovel-claws, which could be used as weapons as well as tools, and climbed up the wall. When he reached the top, he found the bat sitting, wings flapping to cool herself off.

"All right, Rouge, give up the Master Emerald."

Rouge jumped up and saw the red Echidna, panting and furious.

"You just never give up, do you?"

"Looks who's talking. That Emerald's mine!"

"Hmm, you seem to be the stingy one. You had at least seven other jewels in that palace of yours. Isn't that enough?"

"You apparently have no sense of feeling. Without that, the island is as good as dust, as you should remember! Hand it over!"

Before Rouge could protest, the Echidna ripped out the cords that bound the Master Emerald to a re-sizing gadget. The Master Emerald suddenly swelled up into its natural size of a large boulder.

"Hmm, looks like its stuck here now. Good going, Echidna."

"Better here, than in your hands, bat girl!"

Rouge and Knuckles were facing each other from opposite sizes of the Emerald.

"Just let it go!"

"That Emerald's mine; it's too powerful to let someone take it for small reasoning's sake! It controls the other Emeralds so I need it more then you do!"

This argument went on to up a half an hour, and showed no signs of slowing. They were both ready to take it to blows, when the last thing either of them had expected: A huge three-pronged claw lowered from above and snatched up the Emerald.

"What the--?"

"Whaa? Thief!" Rouge shrieked.

Knuckles couldn't help it. "Well, looks who's talking."

Both looked up and found that the claw had withdrawn the Emerald until it reached a hovercraft high above. The hovercraft was rather round, and featureless save for a headlight in front. The operator was a squat, fat man with a large orange moustache.

"Eggman!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"Yes, I came here by homing in on the signal that the Master Emerald gave on my Chaos energy reader. I see I'm not the only one after it."

"I'm warning you, Robotnik, put it down!" Knuckles had grit his teeth.

_So that's the infamous Dr. Robotnik_, Rouge thought.

"Hmm, what's going to stop me? You, knucklehead?"

_That's it! _Knuckles thought angrily, and then suddenly shouted something in a language that neither Robotnik nor Rouge understood; then suddenly the Emerald pulsed light then exploded with a shattering of glass.

The hovercraft suddenly lurched due to the lack of weight, causing it to nearly go out of control. Robotnik was very stunned briefly, and drove away towards a distant pyramid in the distance.

Knuckles thought proudly about what happened, when suddenly, he found his head grabbed by Rouge and being shook back and forth.

"Look what you did to my Emerald!" Rouge hissed, shaking him back and forth.

Knuckles stomped on her boot to get her to let go. It worked, and Knuckles raised his fists. "I did that so as not to let it fall into hands that don't deserve it. If it's in pieces, I can restore it." Knuckles ran to the edge of the shrine, but turned to Rouge again. "Oh, and by the way, that's _my _Emerald."

"I won't forget this, Guardian! I'll get that Emerald yet! All the jewels in the world are mine to keep!" Rouge ran off.

"Yeah? We'll see about that, bat girl!" Knuckles shouted after her, shook his head, and glided away; listening to the shard resonance and thinking what good luck that he thought to bring a backpack. He knew that the Emerald shards wouldn't fly far at all.

It was a good hour and fifteen shards later when suddenly a communicator that he brought with him chirped. He answered it.

"Yeah?"

"Knux? It's Tails!"

"Well, I found her already and pretty much got the Emerald back." It was a half-truth, but Tails didn't need to know that. "What's all the fuss?"

"I just saw a news broadcast! Sonic's been arrested in Sapphire City for escaping from a prison and assaulting military personnel. What am I going to do?" He sounded panicked.

_Arrested? _"First of all, calm down. Call Sally, and tell her. She may need to come down to Sapphire City to find out what's up. I'll be there when I get the Emerald back."

"Ok, I'll fly down and call her too. I can't believe Sonic would do that!"

"I don't think he did. For one thing, he would've had to be in Prison for two seconds to escape and be re-arrested in the time that he had there. The Prison there is on an island about five miles off shore."

"Which means he was framed!"

"But who?" Knuckles was thinking it through, picking up another shard that he found in the sands.

"I don't know. The only hedgehog that I know that looks anything like Sonic is Mecha, but anyone could tell him apart. His eyes give him away."

"Eggman could be behind it, but he'd go for something more dangerous to the world, not a petty play around with Sonic."

Tails moaned. "My head hurts from thinking about it."

"Go call Sally. She'll help you out."

"Hurry, Knuckles!"

The communicator clicked off, and Knuckles got back to work. His life gets more complicated more and more he said to himself.

-----

Dash was flipping through the channels using his new-found toy as he called it and found a news station, and stopped when he saw a picture of Sonic on the news.

"Hey, it's Sonic!" Dash exclaimed and put down the remote to watch. It was a news broadcast.

"Sonic the Hedgehog, famous for his super-sonic speed and saving Sapphire City from the water monster Perfect Chaos…"

A still picture of a huge monster facing a glowing yellow hedgehog popped up. Dash's ego that shared Sonic's inflated, but received a puncture when the next part of the broadcast showed.

"…but recently for sabotaging military property and escaping from prison. He had been detained in Station Square near a Speed Highway lift. He's being held in the Prison Island Penitentiary, where he awaits trial. And today in Sapphire City, we're looking at…"

Dash didn't watch the weather forecast; he was shocked to hear about Sonic. His mind was still too small to think logically, but he was sure that Sonic was innocent. He was with him ever since, and they didn't thrash a mech.

"I got to find him and save him!"

He dove for the floor, and looked for something, then slapped his head in realization. "Rats! Sonic has my Chaos Emerald! That makes things worse!"

Dash leapt up to the door, but it was too high off the ground, and he couldn't fly very well; his transformation-evolution, or otiae in layman's terms, didn't allow him to further evolve his wings. He could fly some, but not as well as Frosty could.

Dash paced across the room to see if there was another escape root, and then his eyes fell on the window. He climbed up onto the air conditioner and peered outside.

"Ah, a fire escape! Perfect!"

It took a bit of struggle to open the window, and then a try to break through the screen on the outside, but he managed to tear a little hole in it and crawl through. He fell on his rear onto the iron staircase. Smarting a little bit, he scampered down the stairs. It took some time, and at each turn, he caught his breath.

After he came to the bottom, he started right at first to call Sonic's name. "Sonic! Sonic! It's Dash! Where are you?"

Then he remembered that the news person said that he was being held in a place called Prison Island…something; he couldn't pronounce the word.

Wait! He remembered that Sonic had a communicator; he left it back in the room in case Dash needed something. He scampered back up the stairs, which was even more of a chore for Dash, being a short, deep blue chao. When he got to the torn-open screen, he squeezed through; wincing occasionally at a few cuts he got from the screen.

He recalled that Sonic stuffed it into the drawer while Dash had his little fit, and with a huffing and puffing, he dragged he drawer open, and jumped into it to find the communicator. It looked like a small walkie-talkie. He thought about calling Sonic, but he didn't know Sonic's wrist communicator code. Double rats!

Hey, he knew the one for the Cyclone. Dash dialed the code, and hoped that Frosty or Tails was nearby it.

He waited a few minutes, impatiently tapping his foot, until it clicked. "Yes?" It was Frosty.

"Frosty, where's Tails?"

"Dash, is that you?"

"Yes, where's Tails?"

There was a pause, and then, "Dash? Where's Sonic?"

"I don't know! He's been taking by the police!"

"We know; we just saw it on a TV," Frosty said, somehow close to the mic.

"What are we gonna do?" Dash asked.

"I called Knuckles already, but I'm having trouble getting Sally. I think I'm too far. You're close enough, you try!" Tails said.

"Ok, come quick, will you?"

"Nadda problem, Dash. What's your room number?"

Dash looked at a phone on the middle of the nightstand. It showed how to dial another room and it showed the room itself. "425."

"Ok, we'll meet you there later. Stay there, and we'll come to you."

"Ok…" Dash was beginning to feel lonely.

"Call Sally, then wait." The communicator clicked, showing that it was now disconnected.

It took a bit for Dash to remember the code for Knothole, but he managed and gave Sally a code.

"Hello?" came the reply.

"Sally? This is Dash."

"Dash? Sonic's chao?"

"Yes…"

"What happened?"

Dash didn't beat around the bush. "Sonic has been arrested and held here in Sapphire City!"

"What? What did he do?" Sally sounded surprised; the anger would come later.

"Nothing! Some prisoner escaped from the prison and the guys here think he's Sonic!"

There was a brief pause, followed by some racket on the other side of the channel.

"Sally?"

Another pause, then Sally spoke. "Sorry; I dropped the communicator. Do you want me to go down there?"

"Tails told me to; he's on the way to Sapphire City as we speak. I'm at the Sunset Resort, room 425."

"I'll be right down. It'll take me a while, but I'll be down there. Stay there."

The channel disconnected, and Dash sat there, and cried in the drawer he sat in, lonely for Sonic.

-----

Sonic was handcuffed and sitting between two guards in a helicopter. He couldn't believe the events of the past hour. He had been brought to a police station for interrogation, but Sonic was too confused to go through it, and protested over and over about being innocent. Then he was forcefully placed on the helicopter, destined for a place called Prison Island off shore.

Prison. The word sent many a chill down his spine. He always imagined prison cells as small, dirty, stinky and cramped. The thought of being in there for any time made him panicky, for deep inside, though he never admitted it to anyone, he was afraid of small tight spaces, a claustrophobic.

His arms ached and felt drained of blood from the stiff position behind his back and "chained" together. It didn't help that the Crystal Ring (the phosphorescent-crystal bracelet on his left wrist that he bought two years before) seemed to smash the handcuff into the base of the hand.

_I've got to get out of here! _Sonic thought quietly, then suddenly remembered that his backpack was still on his back. Some error on the police's part for having not frisked the backpack and confiscated it, so Sonic still had it.

Thanking his lucky stars, he raised his arms so that he could just lift the back flap of the pack and just push out its contents, which was a big, royal red gem, with intense heat radiating off it. It was the Red Chaos Emerald, nicknamed the Ruby of Fire.

The nickname was not lightly given, for when the Emerald had fallen out of the backpack (which was woven with nylon with a heat-resistant coating which explains it not melting or burning) and onto the bit of chain slightly draped behind his back, it began to melt the metal at the touch.

Suddenly, one of the guards began to smell the melting steel floating from behind Sonic, and was alert at once. Unfortunately, he was too late, for the Emerald burned all the way through the metal chain like a blow torch and Sonic was out of there.

Two things happened at once: One was that Sonic had leapt out of his seat and spin-dashed into a guard who had just gotten onto his feet. The blow knocked the wind out of him and out of consciousness. Bullets sprayed everywhere and Sonic tried to kick the guns out of the way. The other was that the Red Emerald had landed on the nylon seat as soon as Sonic leapt off of it and began melting it, and setting the soft insides on fire. Smoke began filling the chopper.

It was rather interesting to hear this on the other side at the communicator's tower back on the island, for the conversation went as thus, starting a few seconds before Sonic's escape from the cuffs:

"Tower, this is Sigma-Alpha 2, requesting to land, over."

"Copy that, Sigma-Alpha 2. We have you on radar. What is your ETA, over?"

"ETA in about seven minutes, approximately at 1030 hours, over."

"Roger, Sigma-Alpha 2. Report status of captured hedgehog aboard, over."

"That's a 10-4, tower. Captured hedgehog is secured and--WHAT?"

The next parts of the conversation were overlapping and interrupting each other as Sonic kept ricocheting off the walls.

"Repeat pilot. What is wrong?"

"The hedgehog has escaped and has taken out two guards!" The pilot began to cough as the smoke from the Emerald doing its work.

Several bangs could be heard over the speaker at the tower, for Sonic was ramming at the door.

Back at the smoking chopper, the door had burst out and Sonic flew out with it. He was able to grab hold onto the missile wing on the left side.

Despite the repercussions of the copter blades and the wind, he could still hear officers shouting orders. "Get that hedgehog!"

Sonic looked down and found that there were at least 3000 feet high, and he also found that he was sitting on a loose panel of the armor of the helicopter. He got an idea.

He began to rip off the panel, which gave a little too easily. _This chopper must've seen lots of action_, he thought and was able to rip it off. It was rather fortunate, for one officer had brandished a handgun and was shooting at Sonic. The panel took some of the blows and the bullets glanced off.

"Talk about low-budget flights: no food or movies! I'm outta here!" He then leapt onto the panel, and had the thrill of his life; the panel caught enough lift, so Sonic was sky-surfing all the way down, whooping in delight of escaping jail and the ride down.

Chapter 3: City Escape

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rouge was panting and glistening near an oasis. Despite the fact that water was everywhere in this oasis in the Dagro Desert, it was still blisteringly hot.

She had observed the Echidna from afar, and was amazed how he was able to pick up one shard after another. He must have some radar or something for no one could've found all those on sight alone, for the shards when separated from the Emerald itself, looked more like glass with a green tint in it.

Rouge had only found one shard, and it was by sight alone, for her Chaos energy tracker was only good if the Emerald was whole apparently, for the tracker did not find the shard, floating in the oasis. She had searched for over an hour for another shard, and had come up fruitless.

She took off her large arm-gloves and scooped up water from the oasis, and drank it. She then sat on the edge of the oasis and watched disinterested as turtles swam back and forth through the water.

Suddenly, her communicator beeped repeatedly with a beep-beep, beep-beep. She answered it, "This is Rouge the Bat."

A voice spoke from the other side; Rouge recognized it as the head of the agency she was a part of: an off-shot of the Central Intelligence Agency from Earth, called the Möbian Agency of Intelligence, or M.A.I. for short (pronounced "may").

"Rouge, something has brewed up in the G.U.N. base, and the secret weapon that they had contained in cryogenic freezing had escaped. This weapon is a byproduct of an inactive project called Project Shadow, formerly run by Professor Gerald Robotnik about fifty years ago. Before he died, he said that this weapon, called the ultimate life-form, would destroy the opposition of his project who had it shut down."

"So, you want me to get read-outs of this Project Shadow and even find a way to stop it."

"That's why you are the spy, Rouge."

"Yes, Chief Dresden. Oh, and don't forget what was promised to me the last time I did an assignment two months ago."

"Rouge, you'll get your jewels soon enough."

"I'm just reminding you, that's all."

"Well, back to the assignment: do you even have an idea where to start?"

Rouge had flown up above the oasis so that the desert was in full view. "Well…" she looked at the horizon in thought, then her jade eyes fell on a distant pyramid. "Yes, I do. I'll get those intelligence reports to you within thirty-six hours. Rouge out."

She then flapped her bat wings, and flew off towards the distant pyramid. But before she had gotten too far, she happened to look down, and saw the sun reflect off something in the sand below.

She dropped down, and found that it was another Emerald shard. She smiled in absolute relish; this shard was the size of her handgun, which would bring a fair price.

With two shards in her grasp, she flew once more again, expecting to see more shards.

-----

"Sonic the Hedgehog, surrender yourself. We have you cornered!"

In the residential districts of Sapphire City, police, G.U.N. and police dogs were crawling in the streets, back alleys and empty houses. One officer was shouting for Sonic to surrender through a bullhorn. The military was taking no chances.

"Good grief, what the heck did I do?"

Sonic was hiding in an attic of a very old house, and was looking through a vent in one of the sides of the roof. It didn't give much of a view, but it gave enough. Sonic mentally ran through a list of the last time he was in Sapphire City, and the only thing that could be lawfully wrong would be running on Speed Highway, but he seriously doubted that offense would warrant a jail sentence, and it was two years ago.

Suddenly, he heard banging around downstairs and immediately realized that the police were searching the downstairs!

"Geez, they're worse then Metal-Sonic!"

Sonic tip-toed on the attic floor, so as not to cause creaking, to the other side of the attic. He found a window on one side of the attic, and found that it could be opened. It took several attempts for the grooves were old and dirty. But he managed to budge it enough so he could fit through. He peered out and found more police in the street, but not in the back alley nearby.

He slid out quietly and slowly out of the window, and was hanging from the windowsill by his fingers. Then, he dropped onto the grass with the balls of his feet, which was not as noisy as landing flat on the soles.

He took several good looks around, and into the alley way especially and found it barren, save for a few alley cats. He began to walk slowly and cautiously away from the house he had hid in, but then suddenly, a cat was surprised by Sonic's presence and gave out a yowl!

Several police turned their heads towards the alley, but Sonic was already gone in a flurry of feet.

-----

_Several hours later…_

Several miles away, in the rapidly chilling landscape of the Dagro Desert, a squat figure was making his way towards the center of a large pyramid. He had strolled down the passageways (which were not really abnormal at first for a pyramid) and then came to a large gate with three key-holes. He took three keys out of a pocket and unlocked the door.

The squat figure was Dr. Robotnik, and the inside of the pyramid showed that he had a base here as well, including the one in Mystic Ruins. The door led into a series of passages that were in the shape of a triangle. Robotnik strolled down more hallways, and came upon a large robot (that looked like a beetle) that was patrolling the hall. The robot ignored Robotnik however and passed on. The human continued walking down the hallways, looking to and fro as if studying the halls. Several lesser sentries roamed the halls, and Robotnik even found one malfunctioning. He gave it a kick; that seemed to work, for it got back to work.

The obese man then came to another door with three key-holes. He unlocked these as well, and he was in the control room. In the control room stood as still as a statue, Metal-Sonic.

"Good day, doctor."

Robotnik grunted, and coughed through the dusty nature of the heart of the pyramid. He then fiddled with his moustache. "Mecha, have you found out more information about the space colony ARK?"

"Yes," Metal-Sonic's eyes lit up slightly. "It's the first Bernoulli sphere space colony, built almost 60 years ago. It has adequate life-support and artificial gravity. It was shut down 50 years ago."

"Hmm, why would Shadow want us to go there of all places, and why do we need more Chaos Emeralds?"

Metal-Sonic said nothing.

"I'll have to see what is going on up there…later." Robotnik strode to the control pod. "Hmm, I wonder what's going on elsewhere…"

Robotnik studied the control pad, and then pressed a button. The view-screen lit up and began playing a news-broadcast, apparently a few minutes old.

"We interrupt this broadcast for an important news flash: There has been a robbery at the Federal Reserve Bank today. Strangely enough, the only thing that was taken was the Chaos Emerald stored there."

"A Chaos Emerald?" Robotnik exclaimed.

"The suspect had been identified by eyewitnesses as the world-renown hero, Sonic the Hedgehog. He had been sighted earlier on the Speed Highway over the business district, clutching the Chaos Emerald. The suspect had taken the Emerald at about 5 PM and fled, destroying several guard robots in his path. Police are barricading the Speed Highway from traffic as we speak…"

As the broadcast continued, Metal-Sonic voiced his thoughts. "I see that humans are complete idiots. Anyone in their right mind could tell that the hedgehog looks nothing like this hedgehog. Black with red, twisted spines and he skates; nothing like the blue hedgehog."

"Yes, it does sound like something Shadow would do. I'm liking him more and more."

"I'm wondering what he really is."

"If I read correctly, he's the ultimate life-form."

"He really does have perfect dimensions for a hedgehog, but I still don't see how he's 'ultimate.'"

"Hmm, maybe when we meet him up on ARK, we'll know…" Robotnik scratched his chin. "When did he say we will meet him?"

"Tomorrow morning; he did not say a specific time."

"Hmm…it is a real shame that we couldn't find another Chaos Emerald."

"We?"

Robotnik was taken aback by this simple question. "Yes, we. What are you talking about, Mecha?"

Metal-Sonic pulled on a glove, and reached into a compartment near the control panel off to the side. Robotnik couldn't see what was in it, for it was obscured by Metal-Sonic's silhouette, but he could tell that the inside was illuminated in a glow of a crimson color.

The robot withdrew his hand, which bore a large, red, glowing gem. "While you were away in the desert searching for a Chaos Emerald, I went to the city for I knew that there was at least one Emerald guarded by G.U.N. there. It was too easy, for I found a smoking helicopter that had landed and was abandoned, and inside, I found this; fools that they are to leave it in such an obvious place."

Robotnik was impressed with Metal-Sonic. "You found a Chaos Emerald! Nice work, Mecha. Hmm, maybe I can reward you with something…"

Metal-Sonic was pleased inside; not many could please Dr. Robotnik. The only one who really did before was that "stupid red adding machine" two years ago. (He was referring to E-102 Gamma when he got the right frog during the plan with Chaos.)

Robotnik took the Emerald and at once dropped it for it was blazing hot. He swore, "Ah, I forgot that this Emerald was as hot as a metal fresh from the furnace!"

Metal-Sonic had turned away, and if he was capable, he would be laughing. He was, but in thought.

-----

The night began gathering on Sapphire City, and while Sonic was running for his life in the downtown regions, another hedgehog was perched on a bridge over the business district on a branch of Speed Highway. It was indeed Shadow, and in his grip was the Green Chaos Emerald. Almost a dozen cop cars were below on the pavement and two helicopters were hovering near as well.

"Hmm, how pathetic…" Shadow stared down at the gathering blockade below. "This is nothing like…"

Shadow seemed to close his eyes, and shook his head as if he was reminded of something unpleasant.

He remembered that awful night, when the military came where he lived. He could remember running down red-lit halls, and men shouting at him and other people, ordering them to catch them all and not to let them escape.

He panted as he streaked down the hall like a ghost. It was when he came to the next room when everything fell apart. A young girl was kneeling against a computer console and was breathing with difficulty. Shadow found that she was shot thrice.

"Maria!" Shadow screamed in utter horror, and then found three soldiers in black uniforms with weapons aimed at Shadow. He didn't waste a second; he dashed into one in a spin and was ready to kill him with one stomp to the neck if there weren't two others. He took the fallen guard's hand pistol and shot at the other two with precise aim, killing them.

He dropped the gun and skated up to the girl (Maria), whose golden hair was stained by blood at the ends, and was speaking earnestly with her.

"Please, Maria, you can't leave me alone!"

She gasped for life and was speaking with a labored whisper. "Shadow, forgive them. Promise me you'll not destroy them."

Shadow's eyes were rimmed, as if he was about to cry. "But…but they did this to you!" Shadow motioned to the blood.

"They have, Shadow. I don't have much life left…" Her voice was getting weaker and weaker. "Give the people down on that planet a chance to be happy. Give them the chance to live…"

"Maria…"

"Sayonara…Shadow the Hedgehog…" Maria had a few more gasps for air, then let it all out in one long sigh. She had breathed her last.

Shadow stood in mortified shock, and tears fell down his face. He wept greatly on her chest. He lifted his head and closed her eyes. He lay her down, and found that his gloves were stained with her blood.

Then, his eyes which were rimmed with tears before, were now rimmed with blood in intense anger. "I'll never forgive you pathetic humans for this. I swear; I will kill all of you!"

Shadow's eyes popped open and saw the night landscape of Sapphire City. His anger was re-awakened. He leapt onto a suspension cable, grinded down it and landed in the center of the crowd of police cars. The police ran towards his black figure, ready to pin him down, but Shadow was ready: he raised his Emerald, which was glowing in a hot green glow that looked like a beacon, and threw the Emerald against the ground.

A wave of energy spread around, throwing the policemen and cars away and some over the edge of the bridge.

"I remember what you told me to do, Maria…but for this planet and filth that inhabit it, I promise you…REVENGE!"

Chapter 4: A Long Night

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"Doggone it, another blockade!"

Sonic had been hot-footing it for over twelve hours, and was growing tired. And who could blame him? He had been running nearly non-stop, save for the times he hid but those weren't long at all, he tried to out-distance them on Speed Highway, but that didn't work out anyway, for it seemed that the police were swarming that place more so then everywhere else.

In the late evening, Sonic had another experience when a large truck about two cars wide began rolling down a hill towards him. Needless to say, he took off with a shot. Much to Sonic's misery was that the track to run away was a street that seemed to go downhill always, and the truck followed him like a cat following a mouse.

He only got away when he took a sharp turn into an alley, and the truck couldn't turn fast enough obviously and even if it could, it wouldn't be able to fit through the alley. Sonic was able to get away for a time.

-----

Shadow on the other hand was having a much easier time avoiding the police, although he acted as if he wanted them to chase them. Anytime one got to close, he would hold up the Emerald and disappear.

Things must've gotten desperate for the military for interceptor jets were now flying over and under the Highway. Bullets were sprayed as Shadow weaved to and fro on the highway. The screaming of jets, the whooshing sound of Shadow's hover-skates and the bullets ricocheting off solid concrete and asphalt were now echoing through the star-lit skies.

Shadow held up his Emerald once more and disappeared and didn't reappear, but a blue hedgehog ran underneath the Highway and then the interceptors gave chase to him, thinking the hedgehog was Shadow.

-----

"Gah! Fighter jets!"

Sonic had glanced back when he heard the screech of jet engines overhead, and nearly freaked. He took to top speed as the environment would allow. Oh, if Tails was here, he could fly out of here with the Tornado 2.

He ran into a dense part with lots of buildings and trees, so the fighters had to give up. He stopped to catch his breath and found that he was in an empty lot behind a super-grocery store (think Dillons™ if you need a comparison).

He said half-heartedly and with fatigue, "My, this game of tag is getting boring. Maybe I should run back to Knothole or…"

Sonic's thoughts were interrupted when a huge clang-clang-clang rang throughout the back lot. He looked around, and found that a large, two-legged robot was stomping towards him.

"Hmm, a robot, huh?" Sonic thought about running anyway; that thing would be way to slow, but he was too tired run now. He guessed he'd have to attack. Just the robot, not the guy inside, he told himself. "Thought about showing up, huh? Ok, bring it on!"

This robot, F-6t Big Foot, was another Mech-Warrior walker that G.U.N. had in its arsenal. It was not as powerful as the B-3x Hot Shot (the one that Shadow thrashed), for it didn't have an ion cannon, but it still had a fair arsenal.

The pilot called into nearby units. "This is F-6t Big Foot. I have located the suspect. It doesn't seem to be intimidated by the hulk of the walker, and seems to be ready to attack."

"Apprehend if possible, but if the suspect does not show cooperation, terminate it. We'll have ground forces and beetle sentry robots heading your way. Good luck, pilot."

"Roger that."

The robot stepped forward with many a clanging stomp, and the pilot called out through a bullhorn for Sonic to surrender.

"Ha! Why surrender if I did nothing wrong, jerks! Here's my response…"

Sonic charged with a battle cry.

"TERIAAAHH!"

Sonic curled into a ball of spines and struck the robot's right foot. The walker bounded backwards and the injured foot was sparkling and bent in several places.

The Big Foot, much like the Hot Shot, was a multiple attack walker, for it could also attack in the air, spraying machine gun bullets downwards.

Sonic dodged back and forth; ducking behind wooden boxes and running back out again, just as the walker sprayed bullets at him, destroying the boxes.

The hedgehog climbed on a large box, and shouted at the pilot. "Hey, skipper! I'm right here!"

The Big Foot turned sharply round and flew at Sonic like a dog that noticed a juicy bone after he ran past it. Sonic leapt up and dashed into the left missile turret, just to the side of the windshield.

A big bang erupted from where Sonic struck, and the hedgehog felt the heat from the strike. He figured later that he had hit a place where a missile was stored and detonated it by accident. It hurt the walker more that it did Sonic: Sonic got away with only slightly singed fur, but the walker's windshield was now cracked on the side, and the turret was shot.

The pilot saw that the craft was beginning to overheat. "This is Big Foot. Taking on heavy damage! Double time the assistance!"

Sonic stood high on the box, and thought to take out the second turret. That would take out the walker without harming the pilot…much.

Big Foot labouringly turned about and tried to fire missiles again, but one of the guns was not firing as fast as the other. The mech came close and Sonic curled into his spine-ball and smacked into the second turret.

There was such a bang that it echoed through the back alley. Sonic landed on the ground, coughing from the smoke and looked tiredly at the mech, which collapsed onto the ground. The turret that Sonic had just hit was smoking and ablaze with fire. The pilot got out and lay on the ground, going into unconsciousness. Sonic looked at the mech and feared that it may explode, and the pilot would be instantly killed if he was too close.

Thinking quickly, he caught up the pilot by the uniform and dragged him farther away from the damaged mech. Sonic took him to behind a dumpster, huffing and puffing for humans tend to be slightly heavier then Möbians.

There was a loud boom and Sonic guessed that the mech exploded, and peeked out to check. It was afire as he had guessed, but something else was there, in front of the inferno. It was another hedgehog, a black silhouette against the fire.

"What?" Sonic said, stepping out from behind the trashcan, and shielded his eyes to see the stranger better.

Sonic stepped forward, and the hedgehog turned and noticed Sonic.

"Hello, blue hedgehog."

"Who are you?" Sonic said, trying to see closer.

Shadow didn't answer Sonic's question at first. "It all begins with this, hedgehog." The figure held up something that was glowing a bright green. Sonic could see it clearly, despite the bright orange flames from behind. "A jewel that contains the ultimate power."

Sonic guessed it at once. "A Chaos Emerald?"

The hedgehog turned completely around, and glared at Sonic, like he did to anyone else he met.

Something clicked in Sonic's mind: something between the two hedgehogs. "Hey, now I see it! The military here has mistaken me for you! So…how about handing over that Emerald?"

The hedgehog, which was Shadow, said nothing.

"Say something, you fake hedgehog!"

Shadow tossed his Emerald in the air, and shouted "Chaos Control!"

-----

Shadow glided slowly by a frozen Sonic, and just flicked Sonic by the ear and skated up to the rooftop of an apartment building, and patiently waited for the time to start again.

-----

Sonic stared where Shadow had been, and scratched his ear. He couldn't explain the sudden itch on his ear, but didn't nearly notice that. He looked around stunned and saw the hedgehog standing on the building directly behind him.

"Whoa, he's fast!" Sonic stared up at Shadow, partly in amazement and jealousy. "Wait a minute, it must be the Emerald he has. He's using it to warp!" Sonic shouted out at Shadow. "Who are you anyway?"

Shadow's response sounded quiet, but Sonic could make out every word. "I am Shadow, the world's ultimate life-form." Shadow tossed the Emerald up in the air repeatedly. "There's no time to play games, hedgehog. Farewell!" He swung the Emerald around and disappeared in a huge flash of light.

"Kuh!" Sonic grunted from the sudden light. "What in the world is he?" he automatically wondered.

"Put you hands in the air and get on the ground!"

Sonic heard the bullhorn and saw that a whole squadron of GUN personnel, a stealth beetle squadron, and many humanoid robots. A helicopter had its light on Sonic. There was no escape now…

Sonic raised his hands and looked annoyed, and was handcuffed again.

-----

Inside a pyramid clear in the Dagro Desert, deep within the base of Robotnik's, another figure stood in front of one of the locked doors.

"This is Rouge reporting. I've infiltrated Dr. Robotnik's base and will proceed to enter the headquarters now…" the bat said, punching a few more buttons into a wrist communicator, and sighed. "I hate to say it, but I guess I have to find those keys first…"

Rouge delicately flicked off a dust particle from her right glove, and probed around the perimeter of the door.

"Hmm, no false bricks here. I wonder where the doctor would hide the keys? Hmm, doesn't matter, I'll find them myself…"

Rouge took out a night-vision eye-piece, and put it on. It only covered one eye, and so Rouge was using aided sight of one eye. It was dark inside the pyramid in parts, so the night-vision proved invaluable.

The beetle robot that was hovering about the halls caught Rouge's attention. She was inspecting a discolored brick to see if it was a false one, when her super-sharp ears caught a shrill buzzing noise. Turning, she saw the robot coming down the hall, its searchlight darting to and fro. Rouge hid behind a pillar to stay out of the vision of the robot. She had a feeling it was a sentry, and considering its light, it would bring in reinforcements once it spotted motion contrary to its master.

It buzzed by, and Rouge was left alone.

"Hmm, the doctor seems to have a thing for robots that look like something. What kind of creativity is that?"

Success for her came in the form of a side door that was well-hidden, but her night-vision made it stand out like a neon light in a dark night.

With a little bit of effort, she opened it and found three keys, all of them labeled with a different colored head of Dr. Robotnik.

"Ah, perfect. I'll take these, if you don't mind…"

She strolled back to the stone door, and unlocked each lock. It took some time, but when the doors opened, she slipped right in. To not attract the attention of the beetle robot, she typed a few keys on a computer console nearby to close the gate.

It was a virtual maze, but after several minutes of traveling down the labyrinth of piston rooms, construction bays and also a huge circular room that had a lot of strange statues in it, she came to a room where the door was closed, but she heard voices in there.

"What do you think why Shadow wants you up there, doctor?" It was a cold, metallic voice. Rouge assumed it was a robot.

"I don't know, Mecha. I don't know whether to disbelieve him or not. He had some strange insight back in the GUN base." A pause. "I'll go up there, but in my walker. If it's a trap, I should break out fine enough."

"Do you wish me to accompany you? His attack style is similar to the blue hedgehog's style, and since I know his, I should know Shadow's. That would be an advantage if he should attack."

"Hmm, very well. We shall go now. I saw the maps and we'll need to teleport to one of the outer rooms; the control room doesn't have enough room to contain the walker."

There was some clamor, and Rouge heard beeping, as if typing on a computer.

"Do you have the Chaos Emerald, Mecha?"

"Affirmative."

A pause, then the other voice spoke again, "Very well. Energize…"

There was a high-pitched whining noise for a second, then a whoosh like a computerized sound of wind, then silence.

"Hmm, it seems safe now…"

Rouge opened the doors, and found that she was in the control room of the base. A huge, glass disk sat in the center and a computer sat at the far end. A large, holo-screen loomed up above, showing regular reports from the sentries.

"Ah, it's a teleporter pod, just like on that Island…" Rouge strode to the computer. "Hmm, the destination is set to…ARK?"

Being a spy, she had to have a good knowledge of the colonies history, and much about the planet, and so was familiar with ARK, while most other people wouldn't give a darn about it.

"Wasn't that space colony closed down about 50 years ago?" Rouge peered at the holo-screen again, seeing if there was any information, but there wasn't. "What's he doing up there anyway…?"

Rouge stared at the disk in the center for a while, then turned to the computer console, programming the teleportation coordinates. "I'll find out myself…"

She stepped onto the disk, and it automatically activated. She disappeared with a whoosh of sound.

Chapter 5: Lost Colony

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dash was tapping his foot impatiently, waiting. He had spent the afternoon crying himself to sleep, lonely for Sonic, when suddenly there was a knock at the door. Dash leapt off the bed he was waiting on and responded, "Who is it?"

"It's us!" It was Frosty.

Dash's heart leapt to the ceiling, but remembered that the door handle was too far out of reach. Then he remembered something else on the nightstand, beside the phone: it was a keycard.

He snatched it up, as the knocking happened again.

"Hey, guys!" Dash called through the door. "I'm gonna slide the keycard through the crack at the bottom of the door, so you guys can get in, ok?"

"Got it…" came the muffled reply.

Dash went onto his hands and knees and slid the card under the door. There was a brief pause, and then Dash heard the locks click. He backed away from the door, just as it opened, and Frosty, Tails, Cream the Rabbit and her chao, Cheese, and Princess Sally walked in.

Sally spoke first, "Now, Dash, tell me exactly what happened…"

Dash narrated his entire afternoon to Sally, just as Tails and Frosty were turning on the TV to find the news. The news was the same, and it re-broadcasted the footage of Speed Highway with the black hedgehog.

"Hey, is that Sonic?" Frosty said, squinting to get a better view.

"But I thought he was arrested already!" Tails said.

"Wait! Look! That hedgehog's spines are the wrong shape. They're curled upwards!"

Tails studied the still picture. "Hey, you're right! It looks like Sonic, and it doesn't look like Sonic. Wow…who in the world?"

Dash had finished his narration and he and Sally were watching the broadcast itself. It showed different still pics of Speed Highway, the downtown, and finally, the back lot of a grocery store, where it appeared that Sonic was arrested.

"Wait a minute! I thought Sonic was arrested in the daytime!" Tails said.

"But is it Sonic?" Frosty squinted again.

"It kind of looks like Mr. Sonic…" Cream was squinting.

"I know him anywhere; that's Sonic. No hedgehog looks completely like Sonic, and that one does." Sally said.

"Oh, my head hurts…" Dash said, rubbing his head.

"I saw that Sonic also had his backpack…meaning that the military that arrested him would frisk it and find three Chaos Emeralds, and they'll hold them too. Triple rats!" Tails exclaimed.

"Can't we go to the prison and spring him out or something?" Dash said.

"I wish it was that easy. If that black hedgehog is a real criminal, and if Sonic is charged for the crimes, bail may be impossible."

"Well, I don't care! I'm getting Sonic out of there, even if I have to break him out with the Cyclone!" Tails was clearly not happy about Sonic's predicament.

"Now, now, be careful, Tails; let's not go to the extreme here."

"But Sonic's in jail!" Dash exclaimed, sharing Tails alarm and anger.

"There's still a chance to get Sonic out of there…legally; we'll see if we can get his bail paid, if there is one, and if there isn't, we'll use Plan B."

"What's Plan B?" Frosty asked, being the ever curious one.

"That's where you come in, Tails."

"Yeah…" Tails rubbed his hands together, secretly hoping that Plan B would go into action.

"We'll go tomorrow morning. Do you mind if I sleep in this room, Tails, or do you want me to get another room."

"Oh, I don't mind. I have a sleeping bag in the Cyclone; I'll run out to get it." Tails picked up the keycard and started for the door, the stopped. "I hope Sonic'll be all right…" he mumbled.

As soon as he left, Frosty started to complain.

"I wish I had a Chaos Emerald, but of course they all are in Sonic's backpack…"

"But we DO have one; the one in the Cyclone," Dash said.

"But it's yellow! I don't like the yellow one! The white one's better…"

"Picky, picky, picky…" Dash said, shaking his head. "You can use all of them, and you're throwing a fit over color? I'm worse off! I can only use the blue one!"

"Ok, cool it, you two." Sally was also not happy about Sonic, but was trying to hide it.

-----

"Hmm, seems quiet enough…"

Robotnik and Metal-Sonic were sitting in a large room, empty and dusty from neglect.

"It must've been marvelous over 50 years ago," Robotnik said.

"Yes…it must've," Metal-Sonic said, peering around the room, feeling suspicious at his surroundings. He didn't like this place.

Robotnik was feeling the opposite; this was like a base gift-wrapped given to him come Christmas. He always had to build his bases, and it took a long time, but this was something else.

"Hmm, Shadow said to meet him in the central control room, did he?"

"Affirmative." _We have discussed this._

Robotnik shoved the levers forwards so the Egg Walker would go into a jog. The ARK's hallways were dark, and everything was silent. It made Metal-Sonic uneasy. When Robotnik awarded him with an upgrade when he came back with the Red Chaos Emerald, safely wrapped in a fireproof bag then wrapped in burlap, he chose a more complex neural system, made of similar materials of his nanotech cranial computer. It affected his motions well; he found a grace in his motions that served him well.

Robotnik came to a place where the hall ended and a dark chasm yawned below. There was another hallway opening on the other side. The solution was simple: the Egg Walker had built into the large legs hoverjets, and Robotnik used them to hover across.

Unknown to either of them, there was a third party besides the two and the hedgehog waiting for them in the control chamber. Fortunately, she came before the fore-mentioned hedgehog; teleporting with a machine has its advantages.

Rouge the Bat was waiting near the control panel, waiting for something to happen. She came to see it, and by golly she will. Then she figured that if Robotnik or Metal-Sonic would show up right there, they would in the very least not too proud.

She fluttered upwards onto an exposed support bean, high above the computers. Just in time too, for just as she swung her feet to hang herself upside-down as bats usually do, when a flash of green below near the controls erupted from nowhere, and formed into a glowing silhouette of a hedgehog. The glow faded and showed the figure of the black hedgehog that was televised on almost every news channel for 24 hours.

He stood there with two glowing gems, one in each hand. Chaos Emeralds! Rouge's lust for jewels swelled four-fold. Jewels were her first love, but what she always wanted was to hold at least one Chaos Emerald. Shivers vibrated down her spine; control it…control it…

She then heard several clanging footsteps coming closer, coming from the hall that led over the narrow walkway to the computer consoles. The hedgehog turned his head slightly, but showed no emotion.

A few minutes later, two figures showed up near the hall entrance: Robotnik and Metal-Sonic. Since the walkway was narrow, Robotnik had to climb out of his Egg Walker and walk. Metal-Sonic climbed out and followed, eyes glowing bright red, scoping the place, especially into the chasm below where the walkway spanned over.

"I've been waiting for you, doctor…" Shadow began.

"So I see. What's this all about?" Robotnik said.

"As you probably know, this space station, the ARK, was built over sixty years ago and overseen by the world's most renowned scientist, Dr. Gerald Robotnik, who I believe is your grand-father…"

Robotnik raised an eyebrow, and Metal-Sonic stared at Robotnik's face. Shadow continued.

"It was built as a science facility for research in multiple categories, such as medical, astronomy, advanced chemistry, et cetera. But underneath all this, there was a division of scientists that produced weapons of mass destruction. This was kept secret, and only the people inside this division knew about it.

"This is one of those weapons: a weapon capable of destroying an entire planet, codenamed: the Eclipse Cannon!" Shadow motioned to a machine behind him: a computer with a large machine with several large balloon-like pods above.

Metal-Sonic's eyes lit up several candelas and Robotnik looked amazed. Shadow's face was turned away and smiled pleasantly…in a cruel way.

"Destroying an entire planet?" Robotnik eyes were wide. "This was my grand-father's legacy?"

"Unfortunately, for 50 years of neglect, the whole ARK is powerless. To use the Cannon, large amounts of energy are necessary." Shadow took up the Sky Blue Chaos Emerald, opened up a panel high above the panels which revealed seven octagonal holes, ending with a point, arranged into a honeycomb shape with one hole in the center. Shadow jammed the Emerald into one of the holes.

Immediately, the computers lit up and several screens showed power levels kicking on. Robotnik heard several machines unseen kicking on beyond the steel walls. A ferocious blue glow erupted from the consoles, shown for a few seconds, and then stopped. The ARK was living again.

"So that's why we need the Chaos Emeralds…" Robotnik said, after watching the machines power up.

"Exactly; we need the seven Chaos Emeralds to power up the Cannon, to use as you please…then, the world could be yours." Shadow's brow lowered over his eyes.

Robotnik smiled greedily, and laughed with pleasure. "Sounds like a real plan…"

Metal-Sonic would've been disgusted if Robotnik thought it up all by himself, but from this mysterious hedgehog, it sounded…different.

"I like the way you think, Shadow. I'll get the Chaos Emeralds, use the machine to dominate the world and build a legacy of my own!" Robotnik laughed and strolled up to the computer console.

"Do you think it'll really be that easy?" A voice spoke from high above.

Metal-Sonic was the first to react; his claws turned into a laser machine gun and he pointed towards the voice. "Reveal yourself!"

"Put away the claws, robot. I'll come down; I was going to anyway."

There was a slight rustle then a white bat wearing a dark tight suit with a pink, heart-shaped breastplate, and elbow-length gloves and knee-high boots with steel caps on the ends. It was Rouge.

She dropped with a clang when the steel-tips met the steel walkway right between Metal-Sonic and the two near the computers. She turned to Robotnik.

"I have a great idea: how 'bout making a deal?" Rouge fluttered her eyes for a brief second.

Robotnik was confused. No one just comes up to him. "A…deal?"

"Of course; I was there when you grabbed the Master Emerald from that Echidna. You also said you had a radar device that tracked it down. I have one, but it's not as precise and accurate. If you let me borrow that radar, I may be able to help you…"

"If I do, what's in it for me?"

"Because I know where three other Emeralds are. I don't look it, yes, but I'm an expert treasure hunter and I specialize in jewels, especially Chaos Emeralds." _It's a half-truth; it's not my first_, Rouge thought.

Robotnik looked skeptical. "Prove it."

"Oh, I will. That robot has one."

Metal-Sonic's eyes brightened with so much surprise that they're were no longer red.

Robotnik also looked very surprised; this bat has a trick in her glove. He snapped his fingers. "Mecha?"

Metal-Sonic turned around and stalked towards the Egg Walker. Whipping on a glove, he took out the Emerald, and stalked up towards Rouge. As Rouge took it out of Mecha's hand, the robot said, "My civilian name is Metal-Ssss…Mecha. It's Mecha."

Rouge fluttered her eyes and fingered the Emerald, holding it away from her face due to the blast-furnace-heat that is characteristic of the Red Emerald. "Okay…Mecha."

As Rouge turned away, Metal-Sonic felt that he didn't like this bat, and felt like making her bear a few good scratches. Strange, he never felt this way before, ever since his upgrades two years ago. The first emotion was anger, then jealousy, then this. He'd better study into this.

As he left, Rouge the Bat fluttered up to the control panel, winked at Shadow, and then delicately put the Emerald into the slot below and to the right of the light blue one.

"Oh, I don't think I've formally introduced myself. I'm Rouge the Bat, but you can call me Rouge." Rouge put her hands at her hips, and smiled.

"Hmm, yes. I'm Dr. Ivo Robotnik, the greatest scientific genius in the world."

Rouge turned to Shadow, whose back was turned and his arms crossed. No talking to him now.

"Now where are these Emeralds?" Dr. Robotnik.

-----

Frosty woke up from her shoebox bed set up in the corner of the hotel room. She woke up to hear sniffling. It sounded like someone was crying.

Frosty slipped from under the covers and started to investigate. The sound of crying always made her sad too, and she learned that the quickest way to solve the problem with her empathy is to help the person with whom she's empathizing.

It didn't take long at all to find the source of the crying: it was inside the bathroom and the source of the crying was Dash, crying on top of the cabinet where the sink was. How Dash got up on such a relatively-high spot was a little out of Frosty's mind, but she saw that a roll of toilet paper short-side down was sitting near an upside-down trashcan, some of its contents spilled on the floor. Dash must've wanted privacy so he went to a place a chao wouldn't go on its own whim.

"Dash?" Frosty called up softly.

There was a pause. "Is that you, Frosty?"

"Yes. I woke up and heard someone crying. I can't stand to here someone crying; it makes me sad too. I went looking for whoever was crying and came here. Can I join you up there?"

Dash sniffled a little bit and replied, "Sure."

Frosty jumped and started fluttering her wings. She flew up to the countertop and found the blue Sonic-chao amid a mess of strewn Kleenexes. Dash had been crying a while.

"Are you okay?" Frosty asked sympathetically.

Dash nodded, but seemed to take it back. "Kind of…well…I miss Sonic."

"You know what, I miss him too." Frosty sat down beside Dash.

"But you're Tails' chao."

"Yes, but since Tails misses Sonic, I see it appropriate to miss Sonic too."

Dash said nothing, and lowered his head. Frosty put her arm as far as she could on her shoulders.

"Don't worry; we'll get Sonic back. The Princess Sally said that we'll be going to that prison to…throw a hay bale or something like that. I guess that's an expression for breaking someone out of jail."

Dash looked up again. "I hope so. I can't stand to sit by and see him rot in jail."

Frosty shivered. "Don't talk about that." The white Nights-chao stood up, yawned and stretched. "Do you wanna go to bed now?"

"Yeah…uh…can I sleep in the box with you?"

"Sure! It'd be warmer! C'mon!"

"Shh, don't wake up anyone else!" Dash hissed, tittering slightly.

The two tittered some more and fluttered to the ground, Dash wishing he could fly as well as Frosty could.

-----

The next day found the ARK in its normal orbit, scenery unchanged, quite boring. Shadow stood motionless in front of a window that peered down at the planet below. He stood here many times before, but normally, he wasn't alone. There was always a young girl, with long golden hair and a radiant expression of joy…but now…

"Ahem, Shadow?"

Shadow snapped out of his memories, and scowled at the speaker. It was Rouge the Bat.

"What do you want, Rouge?"

"It's time to head back down to the planet to find the last Emeralds."

Shadow only made a noise through his noise as if he didn't care. (He did, but he didn't want Rouge to be the one to tell him it was time to go.)

Shadow strolled past Rouge and towards where he kept his Chaos Emerald. He snatched it up, turned and glared at Rouge.

"Tell Robotnik to beam down to Prison Island on the far shore near the White Jungle. Be there." Shadow lifted the green gem. "Chaos Control." He disappeared in a flash.

Rouge turned to get to Dr. Robotnik, who was waiting with Metal-Sonic and the Egg Walker, thinking how it would be nice to teleport so efficiently like Shadow could.

"It's about time you got here, Rouge!" Robotnik griped sitting in his Walker, Metal-Sonic perched on the back, resting against the Laser Blaster Cannon. "Where's Shadow?"

"He had teleported down to the island already. We are to go to the border of the White Jungle farthest from the base," Rouge stated, and climbed onto the Egg Walker.

"Very well…" Robotnik pressed a few buttons on a nearby console and the three were enveloped in a beam of light and flashed out of the space station.

Chapter 6: Prison Island

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Right! Everyone up!"

Dash had slept fitfully despite Frosty's company and when the sun began to come up in the east, he decided that it was a good enough time to get to the island and to get Sonic out.

Tails woke up first, his eyes heavy. "What time is it, Dash?" His speech was slurred from the heaviness of his sleep.

"It's after dawn! Get up! We gotta get Sonic out!"

Cheese was stirring on the bed, whimpering slightly at the loud commotion that Dash was making. Tails peered at the clock. "It's only a little after 6, Dash!"

"But it's morning!"

Tails lay down again, and moaned. "Go back to sleep."

Dash let his arms hang against his sides. "I was hoping that I wouldn't do this, but you leave me no choice."

Dash scampered away into the bathroom, took a Dixie cup, filled it with water (the coldest that the faucet would allow) and came back. Dash had inherited Sonic's mischief when he evolved into his blue Sonic-form, and thought this was a good opportunity to use it to get a point across. He took up the cup, lifted the covers slightly, and then tossed the water into Tails' face.

Tails leapt up wide-awake and nearly shrieked from the surprise. "Dash!"

Dash couldn't help laughing, but knew he ought to be serious. They were on a mission. "It's time to get up, and I had to get you up one way or another!"

Sally mumbled and peered at Tails and Dash, who seemed to be having a verbal showdown. "What's going on?"

"Dash woke me up by pouring water on me!" Tails exclaimed.

"I did it so we can rescue Sonic!"

"You didn't have to splash me!"

"You wouldn't get up!"

By now, Cream, Cheese and Frosty have woken up to Tails' and Dash's heated argument, and it wasn't until Sally had gotten fully up and separated them by stepping them with her arms outstretched did they stop.

"Now cut…it…OUT!" Sally stood in between the chao and the kitsune. Sally brushed her mused forelock out of her face. "Tails, go into the bathroom and dry yourself off."

Tails obliged, but grumbled.

"Now Dash, you know better then that, spilling water on Tails' face. What's the matter with you?"

Dash not only inherited Sonic's mischievous nature, but also his argumentativeness. "It's dawn! We need to get Sonic out now!"

"We are all aware of our predicament, but that is no excuse to wake up Tails so rudely! I should spank you!"

"Do that and I'll tell Sonic!"

"I wouldn't care, now, I expect you to apologize to Tails as soon as he gets dried, understand, young chao?"

Dash growled a little bit, then said, "Sure…"

Cream was slipping on her clothes by now, while Cheese and Frosty looked at each other eyes wide. They never saw Sally so ruffled up like that.

Tails came out, still holding the towel. Sally nudged Dash a little bit, who side-eyed Sally, a little frustrated. "I'm sorry, Tails." Dash mumbled.

"For…" Sally cut in.

"…for pouring water on you."

Luckily, Tails had cooled off in the bathroom a bit, so he was able to forgive the chao and apologized to Dash for blowing up like that.

"Good, now if all is done here, I'm calling room service, assuming they're up this early." Sally gazed at the clock: a little after six. Sally smoothed out her forelock. "What would you like?"

The apparition of food immediately drove any hard feelings away. "Oh, I hope they have some of those little pieces of tender bacon." Frosty shivered at the thought; she always had an appetite for meat.

Dash did not share her appetite. "Eww, why eat that? I'd rather have those eggs with that white cheese stuff in the middle. Now THAT'S food!"

Cream and Cheese decided to join this little fave food conversation. They both expressed that fruit salad was better. "I like the grapes and cantaloupe the best," Cream said.

"I like the honeydew!" Cheese quickly added.

Tails gathered the "orders" and relayed them to Sally, who in turn called up room service and relayed the order to them. It would take a while of course, but all the residents of the room found ways to pass the time: Tails went down to the parking garage and prepared the Cyclone for the trip to Prison Island, telling Dash to call him on the com once the food had arrived. Cream, Cheese, Frosty and Dash amused themselves with the TV, watching the early morning cartoons.

Sally was taking a shower, but in her head, she was planning different ways to get Sonic if bailing him out proved to be much harder then expected. She hated the idea of blasting them out, but Tails DID have a point. It may HAVE to be done.

She dried herself off and slipped on her vest and boots. She thought about arming herself, and thought it would be for the better. A laser pistol would do the trick, she thought.

A twinge of fear touched Sally's inner being; this was indeed the first time they had to rescue Sonic from anything that she could remember. This wasn't like Robotnik's prisons, but the military's. She knew it would be much different then just breaking Sonic out, for this time, there's a mountain of red tape in the way.

-----

"Hmph, having to come back here wasn't my idea of a vacation!"

Four lone figures were looking towards the sunrise, one figure in a mech. They stood in the bushes, not too far from a rocky seashore.

One figure was a black hedgehog with a dark expression, holding one of the seven Chaos Emeralds. Another, a white bat, was leaning against the mech's right leg, applying fresh perfume. A blue hedgehog-reminiscent robot with red eyes was perched up on the Laser Cannon on the back of the mech. The last was a stout human that sat in the mech itself. The four were Dr. Robotnik, Metal-Sonic, Rouge and Shadow, to speak plainly.

Robotnik was in a foul mood, for he knew where Rouge took them: Prison Island. He had already been here for what he wanted before, and didn't see a reason to be here now. Shadow and Mecha remained quiet.

"Are you absolutely sure that there are Chaos Emeralds on this island?"

"Absolutely. You doubt me?" Rouge said plainly.

Robotnik didn't answer, but his scowl said everything.

"Well, believe what you want to believe…"

Robotnik sighed exasperatedly. "Very well, very well. Let's go over the plan once more…Mecha and I will go in first and distract the military troops, so you and Shadow can sneak into the base undetected. Shadow…wait fifteen minutes or until I contact you, then set this timer on the dynamite packs. This whole island is surrounded by missile silos, so you should be able to blow up the whole island. Meanwhile, you Rouge must get into the vaults and find the Chaos Emerald before Shadow blows up the whole island.

"We will meet again at the ARK. We must do this quickly, for we must get in, blow the island and be out of here! They won't know what hit them. Now, we have only thirty minutes to pull this off, so don't fail me! Now, go!"

Robotnik drove the Egg Walker forward; Mecha leapt off and flew towards the dock, preparing for weapon fire. Rouge darted off and Shadow glided off.

-----

_A few hours later…_

"Man, this place sucks…"

Sonic was very frustrated. He was in a prison cell because of that black hedgehog. Also, this jail cell was featureless save for the door: no bed, nor window (except a dirty one on the cell door); just four walls, a floor and a ceiling.

He was also chained to the wall by both arms. That made him even angrier! He couldn't do anything but sit and wonder what time of day it is. Sleep was denied him for the floor was cement and the chains cold.

He wondered if human prisoners were treated the same way.

He gazed around the room, and noticed that the walls and floor were scribbled with various sketches, formulas and sentences. Because he couldn't do anything else, he tried to make sense of the whole mess. Whoever was in here before was a college nut, he figured.

He found one larger drawing with what looked like a half-circle with a spear-point on the flat-end of the half-circle. The spear-point was faced towards a bigger sphere, with markings on it as well. It reminded Sonic of crude drawings of a planet like Möbius or Earth. A dotted-line came from the spear-point towards the bigger.

His mind-momentarily distracted, he looked at some accompanying sentences that were beneath it. There were a lot of large words in it that Sonic had no clue what they meant.

He perked his ears up suddenly, for he thought he heard sirens, but they were so faint that he wasn't sure if he was just hearing things, or not. Great, just great…he's going crazy in this pit.

-----

There was something else going on as well on the island, that neither Sonic, the three conspirators, or the rescuers en route to Prison Island never even gave a thought. This was the day of a field day for the eighth-grade school students back in Sapphire City to come to Sapphire City for a history field trip. One student on that trip was none other then Amy Rose.

Amy lived in Sapphire City. As I had explained in an earlier time, Amy's family had moved to the human colonies to escape Dr. Robotnik's regime in Robotropolis. Even then, Robotnik showed up in Sapphire City two years earlier with the water monster Chaos, and Amy got caught up in it unintentionally. After Perfect Chaos had swamped over half of the city and after Super Sonic had stopped the beast from destroying the coast, Amy's family moved again, still in Sapphire City, but further up the coast; their house had been destroyed during the Perfect Chaos incident, you see.

Amy had also heard news that Robotropolis was being demolished by other Freedom Fighter bands so as to rebuild it in its former glory of Mobitropolis, hoping that Robotnik won't show his face again.

Now the young hedgehog was now on Prison Island, listening as the tour guide droned on about the history of Prison Island and its present use.

A hint of movement caught her eye. Naturally, she peered in that direction. In the shadows of the buildings, something was moving. It was gliding silently along the ground. To Amy, it was black in the shadows. What is that?

Amy's eyes sharpened to study this stranger closely. It's head turned slightly, and she could see numerous spines on its head. It wore gloves and colored shoes, and it zipped away, apparently wary about someone's presence. As it did, a glint of metal from his hand showed up.

Could it be? It looked like Sonic! A dozen thoughts raced through her mind suddenly as she remembered her crush. "Forget this tour, I'm going after Sonic!" she thought.

She sprinted after the hedgehog, being grateful that she had decided to practice sprinting in gym class at her school last year as well as this. She was getting better at running.

-----

Robotnik was getting a little nervous.

Not that he hadn't faced the GUN forces before, but it was their number that disturbed him. No, there weren't a lot. As a matter of fact, there were significantly less then he figured on the docks.

He had talked to Metal-Sonic earlier via communicator and found that the Mecha was having the same feeling. Where IS everybody?

He had taken down a few robots in plain sight just so he can attract attention as planned, but GUN didn't seem to be taken the bait. The human tapped his fingers nervously against the armrest of his seat. He hoped that neither Rouge nor Shadow was discovered by GUN. That would ruin everything...

Metal-Sonic zipped by, but came back, agitated. He too had expected more resistance then this, and was feeling that he was wasting energy in his fusion core.

A voice came on the network. Robotnik hastily responded. "Yes?"

"Doctor, this is Rouge…" she sounded breathless.

"What's happening?"

"This base! I never realized the GUN base was so protected. I haven't even made for the vault yet; too many guards…" she gasped.

Robotnik cursed. "Have you contacted Shadow?"

"No, not yet…if you expect me to get into that vault, you need to get these guards busy with something else!"

"I know!" Robotnik barked. "Just hold on…meet me at the armory. Mecha will deal with the resistance. Hurry! " He disconnected. "Mecha, fly towards the base and distracts any troops around the vault and draw them away. We only have 20 minutes!"

"Affirmative," Mecha complied and flew towards the base.

Robotnik called Shadow. "Shadow, there's been a hitch in the plan. Meet me at the armory. We need to improvise with the current situation."

"What's the matter, doctor?" Shadow sounded cool, but Robotnik wasn't sure, but…was he agitated as much as he was?

"Rouge can't get in the vault because of guards. We need to draw them away. Mecha's on the way now, but I may need your help. We only have twenty minutes. Meet at the rendezvous point."

Robotnik cursed again once the communication port was inactive. He activated his hoverjets and hovered towards the base, beginning to hate the look of the human base more and more.

-----

Meanwhile, not too far from the base…

"There's Prison Island!" Tails announced, over the wind.

"Good!" Sally called back.

Communication was difficult, so nobody talked much. Sally felt cramped for Cream and Cheese begged and pleaded to go as well. Against her better judgment, she caved. Now she was seated in the cramped back seat with Cream, Cheese, Frosty and Dash. Tails didn't want to risk any of the chao playing with the controls. He didn't want the Tornado going into walker form over the ocean. That would ruin his day…

But the flight was uneventful, save Cheese feeling a little woozy from the flight. They got clearance easily enough, for the head of the West Möbian government was flying in, and she meant business.

Tails landed on the runway, and switched the plane to walker form. He meant business too, just in case they couldn't get a certain hedgehog out in the way they had hoped.

The chao leapt out, and Dash and Cheese embraced the ground. Frosty was really the only one who liked flying like that, and the others preferred solid ground over air.

"Tails, stay with the chao. I'll take Cream and see if I can sort this mess out."

"Yes, ma'am," Tails said obediently, and leaned against the leg of his Cyclone.

Sally and Cream strolled into the main building, and found the receptionist, a woman in uniform with black hair tied back in a bun, hidden by her uniform cap. She looked up. "Yes?"

"I'm Princess Sally Acorn from Mobitropolis. I am to the understanding that a Sonic the Hedgehog is being held in this island…"

"And…"

"And I would like to take him into my custody." _He's blameless, but she doesn't need to know that._

The receptionist typed something on a nearby computer as Sally and Cream waited. Cream's boredom got the best of her and she began looking around on the desk.

The receptionist looked up. "I'm sorry, but there is no one under that identity here."

Sally was a bit surprised, but reasoned a transfer to another holding facility happened. "Transferred?"

"No. This 'Sonic the Hedgehog' was never here."

Sally's new surprise and anger showed. "What do you mean? We saw him on the news! He was taken custody behind that super-grocery store late last night!"

"I'm sorry, but the hedgehog you speak is not to be released anywhere. Shadow the Hedgehog is a dangerous criminal. Custody is denied."

"'Shadow' the Hedgehog?"

"Who's Shadow, Aunt Sally?"

"I don't know…" she turned to the receptionist. "Thank you." Sally was clearly seething.

She was so angry that she didn't see Cream take something from the desk as the receptionist's back was turned as she was searching for a file.

Tails looked up to see Sally, and could tell by the look on her face that something didn't go well. Cream came up behind Sally, trying to get Sally's attention.

"Uh oh, what happened?"

"I can't believe the stupidity of these people! Sonic is mistaken by a hedgehog named Shadow? Unbelievable!"

"Aunt Sally…!" Cream said from behind.

"Shadow?" Dash looked up. "Who's Shadow?"

"I don't know! Whoever he is, they won't let Sonic out because they think he's him!"

Dash was shocked for a second, then his expression nearly mirrored Sally. "I oughtta rip their faces off…"

Frosty spoke next. "What do we do now?"

"Aunt Sally…?" Cream called again, louder.

Tails was beginning to feel angry too. "I'm about to march this Cyclone into the jail cell and blast him out."

"Aunt Sally!" Cream called again, feeling angry from not being noticed.

"What?" Sally barked, suddenly remembering to control her temper.

"I found this on the desk while you were talking to that lady. What is it?"

Sally picked it up, and her eyes widened as she read the contents. "It's a G.U.N. Identification Card! Do you know what this means?" Sally shouted, not angrily as before, but serious.

"What?" all the others asked, wondering what caused Sally's mood swing.

"This is our ticket to get Sonic out of jail! Tails, get in the mech! We're getting Sonic out."

"Yes!" Dash and Tails shouted in unison, and leaped into the cockpit. Tails took the controls, and Dash looked battle-hungry.

"Cream, you are a genius!" Sally said, as she was climbing in.

Cream blushed, but hastily climbed into the Cyclone, just as Sally climbed in and bucked in.

"Let's go!"

Chapter 7: Confrontation

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robotnik and Shadow waited in the shadows of a nearby bunker. Rouge ran up suddenly, and reported that Metal-Sonic was fighting the guards near the vault.

"Good, he'll take care of everything. Shadow, once the way is clear, get into the armory and plant the timer. We don't have much time to waste. Rouge, you'd better be quick in getting those Chaos Emeralds. I don't plan to come back after the island blows up and finding your remains."

Rouge sniffed silently at this mild insult, but said, "You'll get your Emeralds, doctor. I AM the best treasure hunter on Möbius."

Shadow had his back turned to them so Rouge couldn't see him close his eyes in disgust.

All of the sudden, Metal-Sonic spoke through the communicator. "Doctor, I have cleared resistance and am preceding to lure any reinforcements from the vault entrance."

"Excellent, Mecha. Keep them busy…" Robotnik disconnected. "All right, Shadow, Rouge! On with the--"

He was interrupted with a high, insistent voice suddenly sprung up from behind Shadow. A pair of arms embraced Shadow's neck, and the black hedgehog stumbled forwards.

"Oh, Sonic! I'm so glad you're here! I missed you a whole lot!"

Shadow looked absolutely revolted, and grabbed at the arms around his neck. Robotnik was surprised and confused. Where did Amy come from?

Rouge was the only one that saw the humor in the situation. She started coughing softly to hide her potential giggling. She never saw a more picture-esque scene.

Amy looked at whom she had latched on to, realized something, then let go with a startled gasp.

"Hey! You're not Sonic! Who are you?"

Shadow turned around, seething and embarrassed. Robotnik scratched his head, and Rouge surrendered to laughing softly, half-trying to control it, behind the Eggwalker's leg.

"What are you doing here?" Amy was also embarrassed and a little frightened.

Robotnik found his tongue. "I should be the one asking that!"

Amy looked up in horror at Robotnik. "Dr. Robotnik!" She screamed in fright. Shadow cringed for he was right beside her and it made his ears uncomfortable.

The girl hedgehog took off at a run away from the three.

"Amy! You're timing is impeccable!" Robotnik cursed, knowing if she got away, she'd tell someone. "I'll deal with her. You two, go!"

The two complied, Shadow calming down, and Rouge wishing she had a camera for that.

Robotnik pulled down his goggles over his eyes and set the Walker to follow Amy.

-----

"Which way is it?" Tails asked.

"I'm not completely sure; we'll have to cover each one," Sally replied.

"Oh, I hope Sonic's all right. I know he can't stand tight places like this." Dash looked warily at the small space between two bunkers.

Cream was sitting back, ears lying in her lap. She began to look around the bunkers. Who is this Shadow? Whoever he was, he didn't sound like a friendly person. It had that same ring as another named she feared: Robotnik.

She remembered the day when she was brought to Knothole, not two years old. She remembered this Dr. Robotnik from a long way off, but didn't understand then. It was while she lived in Knothole in the care of the Freedom Fighters when she learned more. He was an evil man, wanting to take control over the whole world and be a big boss over everyone. Cream hated being bossed, and the thought of a BIG boss made her queasy.

She was in this manner of thinking when she heard something different over the clanging footsteps of the Cyclone. She rose up a bit, trying to hear it better. It sounded like a scream. Oh, it stopped.

"Aunt Sally?" Cream tugged on Sally's vest.

"Yes?" Sally looked at Cream.

"I heard something. It sounded like a scream."

"A scream?" Sally listened, but was having a hard time because of the Cyclone's footsteps. "Tails, could you stop for a sec?"

"All right…" Tails said, "…but why?"

"Shh!" Sally cut off Tails, and had an ear up to hear.

"What are you listening for?" Dash asked, his curiosity about to explode.

"Shh!"

There was silence, save for distant wave-crashing from the beaches.

"I don't hear anything…" Tails began, when he heard suddenly a clank, clank, clank. Tails gulped. That sounded like the footsteps of a mech. "Wait…I hear a mech."

"And a big one at that." Sally also heard the noise.

"That's not the noise I heard…" Cream said.

"But it could be the reason you heard that former noise." Tails grabbed the controls. "Let's check it out."

"It doesn't sound too far away…" Frosty said, peering out.

"Hurry, Tails, they're leaving," Sally added.

"All right." Tails whipped the Cyclone around to follow the noise. "I'll turn on the radar so we can find it better."

"Good idea."

Tails looked at his radar. "Wow, it IS a big mech. We should be within scanner range. I'll scan it."

He did so, and on the computer showed that it was a heavy walker: almost two tons of mass, large firepower and had a sphere-shaped body. Tails had an odd suspicion about the design, when he rounded the corner and came to see it.

"It's Eggman!" Tails shouted suddenly.

Cream gasped and ducked, hoping to avoid being seen.

"And Amy!" Sally shouted, pointing towards a figure standing between the Eggwalker and the water.

"What's she doing here?" Tails said, horrified at the situation.

"No time for that! Help her! Robotnik could roboticize her in the time you ask her the question!"

"Oh, right! Get everyone else away!"

Sally nodded, brandished her laser gun and commanded that everyone (except Tails) to get away from the Cyclone. She sensed a fight and didn't want innocent bystanders in the crossfire.

-----

"Oh no!"

Amy found herself facing miles of ocean, and right behind her, Dr. Robotnik. She slowly turned and saw the immense walker stomping towards her. A huge Laser Cannon slowly aimed towards her.

"Give up, Amy!"

Amy was frozen. She couldn't speak let alone move. Oh, if only Sonic was here…

Suddenly, there came a rapid repercussion of a gun off to her right. Robotnik cursed in surprise and swiveled the Eggwalker to face the fire. Amy sighed in relief as she recognized the incoming walker. It was Tails, and the Cyclone!

"Oh, Tails! I'm so glad you're here!"

"No time, Amy! Get away from here!"

Amy ran behind the Cyclone and found Sally, Cream and the chao a fair distance off.

"Well, if it isn't my old friend, fox boy…" Robotnik began coolly.

"Just back off, Eggman," Tails gripped the controls hard, and the rear-mounted rocket launcher swiveled in battle formation. "…and I'll think about not blowing you to kingdom come."

Robotnik scoffed. "You think that toy mounted on the back of your little go-cart is going to harm me? Me? I think I'll teach you a little lesson about manners!"

Robotnik swiveled quickly and began firing laser blasts at Tails, but the kitsune didn't practice for over eighteen months for nothing. The radar picked up the incoming blasts and the computer automatically sent a few laser blasts of its own to block them.

Tails fired two rockets that could have easily punctured through a semi-truck without slowing, but Robotnik met those as well.

The battle continued like this for a full five minutes, and the fire power was so intense that it seemed that it was impossible for both of them to survive. Robotnik began to sweat. Shadow should've set the timer by now, and if his clock was correct, he had only 10 minutes to get off the island before it blows, but Tails didn't need to know that.

Robotnik retreated a few steps, and Tails gripped his controls, expecting an attack, but the human didn't oblige him.

"Consider our little game postponed, but the next time we meet, you won't be so lucky!"

The Eggwalker turned and took of at a jog.

Tails leaned back and sighed. That was easy enough…

The others came up to the Cyclone.

"Thank you, Tails, but why are you here at this island?" Amy asked.

"I should be the one asking that." Sally put her hands at her hips. "Do you realize how dangerous that was?"

"I know, but I saw a hedgehog that looked a bit like Sonic, and I followed him. He led me to Eggman, and they caught me."

"Well, you're staying with us. C'mon, Tails, let's find the Prison block."

"Oh, I know where that is! I was on a field trip with my history class and the guide showed us a prison block. It was also the same place where they keep their underground base. Follow me!"

Amy took off at a sprint, Tails looked at Sally, who had a resigned look on her face. Tails shrugged and drove the Cyclone after Amy.

-----

"Rouge! Have you got the Emeralds yet?"

"If you keep calling me, I'll never find them. Just give me a minute!" Rouge snapped, fiddling with a safe lock.

"You have ten. I had just called Shadow and he has already set the timer, and it'll go off in the time I had just said! Hurry!"

Rouge clicked off her communicator. If he wanted them so badly, he could've just come down himself. Rouge shook her frustration off as she returned full attention to her work.

She shivered. The vault was three stories underground and lit by annoyingly-bright fluorescent lighting. Fans kept blowing to insure steady temperature of the vault, and it stayed at a constant 56 degrees Fahrenheit. Rouge made a mental note to invest in more climate-adaptable suiting.

She eyed her watch nervously. Ten minutes, huh? She figured at least five would be plenty, but this electronic lock pick was taking longer then expected. Maybe it was getting sluggish in this temperature.

Suddenly, it beeped. She smiled and opened the door. There was a wooden box in the center of the safe, and inside it was a bundle of cloth. She scooped it up, nearly dropping it and unfolded the cloth. It was the Blue Chaos Emerald.

She peered into its facets, and the lust for jewels swelled up in her like bread in the oven.

She shook herself, and stuffed it into her backpack. One down, two to go, and more then nine minutes to boot…

Better get to work.

-----

Chapter 8: Countdown

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9:02…9:01…9:00…

Sonic eyes itched. In the semi-darkness of his cell, his phosphorescent bracelet was radiating meekly and its glow hurt his eyes over time. Curse this stupid cell, curse that black hedgehog, curse everything! Why did it have to happen to him?

Those noises her heard stopped a while ago, so he figured that he was hearing things.

Then, there was a new noise. It sounded like heavy footfalls, but metallic. It sounded like a mech. Sonic rolled his eyes. Now he was hearing things like Eggman's old robots. Was he going mad? It would be nice to lie down on a cot if it was available, but no…he HAD to have the one with scribbles on the wall and floor, and nothing else!

Suddenly, there was a big blast that was so real that he jumped. The door blew open at the other end of the hall. What the heck was that?

He then heard a very familiar voice.

"I could've used my key…"

Dash?

"Quiet, where's the cell?"

Tails?

"It should be down at the end of this block."

Sally!

He shouted through the door, stretching the chain as far as he could. "Hey, guys! I'm down here!"

"Sonic!"

Wait, that voice…Amy? What was SHE doing here?

He heard those footfalls again, and it sounded like...oh yeah! The Cyclone!

They stopped right outside his door. "Is that you, Sonic?" Dash called in.

"Yeah! Get me out of here!"

Amy spoke next. "Shh! Keep your voice down…"

"What are you doing here, Amy?" Sonic asked; he was in no mood for pleasantness.

"Well, I caught a ride with Tails…why are you in jail?"

"Because of that black hedgehog…"

"You mean Shadow?"

"Did you see it?" Sonic looked at the door. "Where was he?"

"If I tell you, will you marry me?"

Sonic could hear a few disgusted groans from the chao. "Drop dead, Amy…"

"Aww, I thought I had you this time."

Sally had already climbed out and slid the card through a keypad nearby the cell. It activated the door and it unlocked. Amy pulled open the door.

"Oh, look! He's chained to the wall!" Dash cried in outrage.

"We'll get him out." Tails leapt out of the cockpit and pulled out some extra-strength loppers, the kind that can break metal. He walked towards Sonic. "Stretch the chain between the cuffs out. We'll deal with the cuffs themselves when we get back to Sapphire City. I have my lock-pick set there."

Sonic obliged, and Tails got to work.

"Amy, you said that you saw that black hedgehog…Shadow. Where?"

"He was with Dr. Eggman and some bat lady. They were near the docks, and I saw Shadow and thought he was you."

The idea amused Sonic somehow and brought his spirits up more.

"So, Eggman's on the island, huh?"

"I think," Tails cut in. "He took off after I had a skirmish with him with the Cyclone."

"You took him on? Kind of like the Egg Walker two years ago, huh?"

"Kind of, at least I had the Cyclone this time." Tails snapped the chain. "There we go."

Sonic got up immediately and stretched. "Wow, that feels real nice." He noticed Sally in the back seat of the Cyclone. "Hey, Sal. Tails got you down here, I see…"

"Oh, that reminds me. Knux also knew about you, Sonic." Tails put away the loppers. "I should call him too. He got the Master Emerald back apparently; at least, I think that's what he said..."

"Good for him. Hey, let's juice outta here."

With that, Sonic took off out the door, and the others followed in the Cyclone.

-----

7:34…7:33…7:32…

Sonic was running through the docks, eyes open for either Dr. Robotnik or Shadow. Amy informed him that they were on the island. But why? What was on this island that Eggman would be after…?

Suddenly, he remembered his missing backpack that was taken the first time, and what it contained…the Chaos Emeralds! How did they know they were here? Shadow must've tipped Eggman off. Sonic cursed in his mind.

He was zipping through the docks, when he espied to his right something flying towards him. He glanced more and saw a glint of metallic blue…

Metal-Sonic.

He was here too? That just makes things spiffy.

Apparently Mecha had seen Sonic already and was going to challenge him, otherwise Mecha wouldn't have flown his way. Too late to avoid him now…

Mecha was now only ten feet away and flying alongside Sonic.

"Greetings, hedgehog." It was a cold greeting.

"Hi, Mecha," Sonic replied glibly. "What's a guy like you playing out with the humans for?"

"Why must I tell you? My actions are irrelevant to yours."

"Then why are you over here?"

Metal-Sonic fired a laser blast at Sonic's feet, but Sonic swerved to avoid it.

"Have you not learned? My priority objective is to eradicate you, ever since my creation."

"Looks like you're failing miserably, Mecha…I'm still here…"

"Not for long you won't!" Mecha fired a rocket at the deck only ten feet in front of Sonic.

Sonic had just enough wit to jump over the now-existing gap, but it slightly rattled him still.

"Yes, my upgrades keep me in pace with you, hedgehog. Sooner or later, I'll become powerful enough to finally take you down." Mecha cocked his head as if listening to a voice that Sonic couldn't hear. He then turned back to Sonic. "Consider your death postponed."

Mecha fired yet another rocket at the deck, which Sonic avoided again, then the robot flew off over the ocean.

"Well, that was fun…" Sonic stood leaning on the deck. He then lifted his wrist communicator to his mouth. "Tails? Ya copy?"

"Loud and clear, Sonic. Where are you?"

"On the docks. Just had an encounter with Mecha."

"He's here too?"

"Not anymore; he took off over the ocean. Not sure why…" Sonic changed the subject. "Meet me at the other end of the island. If GUN still thinks that I'm Shadow, I don't want to be caught again."

"Good thinking! Meet you there!"

"Ciao!"

Sonic took off away from the docks and entered the tangled jungle of Green Forest, adjacent to the White Jungle.

-----

6:54…6:53…6:52…

Shadow was leaning against a tree in the White Jungle, standing stock still, waiting. It wouldn't be long now…this will leave a great wound on the pitiful humans, who took away Maria from him on that tragic day.

Maria…

His only friend aboard the world of machines and technology. He never knew the natural world until recently, when he was released by Dr. Robotnik. While he was out, he stumbled upon both flora and fauna. He knew nothing beyond the cold walls of the ARK, so he took in the smells and sights coolly. This planet seemed to be a rather pleasant place, but with those humans infesting it like a disease…

His communicator beeped. He snapped out of his thoughts and he picked up the communicator. "Yes?"

"This is Rouge…I…have a small problem."

His eyes narrowed.

"I can't believe I'm locked in a vault with three Chaos Emeralds!"

He said nothing.

"I guess I can no longer call myself a treasure hunter anymore…one of you will have to come back for these Emeralds…goodbye."

The line ended. Shadow gritted his teeth. Another problem. Fool…

His com beeped again and he felt like throwing it into the water below to end this annoyance. "What is it?"

"Shadow? It's Dr. Robotnik. Did you happen to receive a communication from Rouge?"

He paused. "Yes…"

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Aren't you going after her?"

"Why should I? She brought herself into this; let her learn the consequences."

He didn't let Robotnik answer, he disconnected.

He began walking, shaking the thoughts from his head. He then felt a strange pricking in his inner being. He couldn't identify it, for he was still new to this learning. His mind flashed to Maria lying on the floor. She was saying something to him…

"Shadow, promise me. Help the people who live on that planet below…"

Suddenly, he was warring against his promise with Maria and his utter hatred against the people here.

His mind flashed back and forth from Maria and Rouge, trapped in a vault, about to die. There was much in common between the circumstances of Maria and Rouge.

Shadow cursed, and followed the impulse in his inner being that was growing rapidly.

"Troublemaker…"

He flashed away through the bushes.

-----

4:01…4:00…3:59…

Shadow was tearing through the tangled undergrowth. This considerably lessened his speed, but he reasoned that he should get to the vault, get Rouge out and get out again with time enough.

He was thus concentrated when he was distracted by a blur that raced by. He couldn't tell, but it was blue. Two and two went together quickly.

"That blue hedgehog again! Of all places…" Shadow heard a screeching of halting, then the next thing he knew, the hedgehog was racing alongside him.

"So, I found you…faker." Sonic was speaking through his teeth, obviously angry.

Shadow stopped, as did Sonic, several feet away. "Faker? I think YOU'RE the fake hedgehog here!"

"What?" Sonic shouted, outraged.

"You're comparing yourself to me? Ha! You're not even good enough to be my fake!"

Sonic suddenly spin-dashed at Shadow, the former not being able to control his anger any longer. "I'll make you eat those words!"

Shadow crouched into a defensive posture, and Sonic charged again, a whirling ball of spines. Shadow leapt up and met the spin-dash with one of his own. They two bounced off like Super-Balls, and both recovered their position.

"I am the ultimate life-form. What makes you think you can stand against the ultimate?"

"Yeah right, what makes you so special?" Sonic charged again at a flat run.

Shadow somersaulted into Sonic, which caused the latter to trip, receiving some smarting bruises on his legs.

"What needs to be stated to better show a comparison between the ultimate life-form and a pitiful one?"

Sonic curled into a ball and charged again. Shadow met with it again and they bounced off.

Sonic scoffed. "Bull! Even the strongest guy can be made weak!"

Sonic dug something out of the cuff of his glove, and just for the sake of his injured pride, he showed what it was. A golden ring, glowing radiantly. Shadow gave no sign of recognition, so Sonic decided to show him. He slid it on.

He immediately shot skyward, and Shadow rose to meet him. Sonic struck over and over, once in a while connecting. The energy of the Power Ring gave out, and Sonic fell to the ground, slightly winded. Even energized, Shadow is still a tough opponent. He found Shadow getting up, battered.

"Not bad for an imposter…" Shadow hissed.

Sonic rose again, waiting for Shadow to attack again.

Suddenly, both heard beeping. Shadow sighed angrily, and picked up his communicator that he dropped nearby.

"Shadow! What are you doing? Get off the island before it blows up with you on it!"

Sonic heard every word. "Blows up?"

Shadow glanced at his watch, eyes widening slightly, then flashed away, leaving Sonic alone.

Sonic was gone in the opposite direction a half-second later.

-----

1: 59…1:58…1:57…

Sonic didn't even know how much time was left, but he didn't care. He didn't want to be here when it did blow. He had to find Tails!

His legs began to smart. Dang, that Shadow could fight. Who was he?

The light was getting brighter. The forest was thinning. He must be coming to the end. Good! He must be close…

He broke out and found himself out on the beach. He looked one way or another, expecting to see the Cyclone somewhere, but the seashore line curved so much that it was impossible to see far at all.

He quickly opened his communicator. "Tails? Where are ya, little bro?"

"Don't worry, Sonic. I have the signature of your communicator on radar. Keep running to your right along the seashore and you'll find us."

"Got it."

Sonic took off at a run, half-expecting to hear a resounding boom and feeling the heat of the blast that would take him with the island any second and time seemed to crawl.

He saw the Cyclone ahead, its blue color standing out of the earthy colors around. He raced towards it.

All looked up to see Sonic race towards them. Dash leapt out towards Sonic with a delighted cry, and Sonic caught him.

"Glad you made it, Sonic." Tails was fiddling with the controls and had been passing the time playing Tic-Tac-Toe on a notepad with Frosty.

Sonic leapt onto the Cyclone nose. "No time. We gotta get out of here! I ran into Shadow, and Eggman called him. The island's about to blow!"

"What?" all exclaimed.

Tails hastily transformed the Cyclone into plane form and accelerated over the beach.

"Did he say how much time was left?" Tails shouted over the noise.

"No!" Sonic was perched on the wings; there was no room in the back seats.

Dash was in one of Sonic's arms, holding on and Sonic's other hand was holding onto the wing. Frosty and Cheese was in the front seat with Tails, while all the others were stuffed in the back seat. All in all, it wasn't a comfortable ride, but none cared. Their lives were in danger at present, and that was quite enough.

-----

:30…:29…:28…

Shadow flashed into the base and rushed into the vault. He wasn't even sure which safe Rouge was trapped in, but he had to find out.

He whipped his communicator out. "Rouge, which safe are you in?"

She was panting; either because of the time or she was running out of air. "Bottom Floor, A Block, safe 2-1."

Shadow dropped to the bottom of the floor and weaved through the fans and clutter on the floor and found the safe. He whipped out the Chaos Emerald he had all this time and smashed it into the lock. It shorted out and slid open easily enough. There was Rouge, hunkered in the back, panting and looking slightly relieved.

Shadow rushed towards her, all the while the Green Emerald growing violently bright all the while.

-----

:02…:01…:00

The Tornado was speeding over the ocean when all of the sudden, an enormous bang roared through the air. All jumped and looked back. An enormous orange mushroom-shaped cloud lifted over the island and debris was flying. It was terrifying!

Tails accelerated the laboring Tornado even more. The shockwave was still coming, and if it caught up, they were toast.

He yanked back on the control stick, causing the Tornado to rise. Everyone else felt like they left some of their insides behind, and were growing hot from the heat that came from the explosion. The heat gauges in the Tornado were rising considerably, and Tails began to sweat in fear.

The ocean roared beneath, and steamed at the intense heat. Then the shockwave came. It tore through the water so you could see it! It came large and terrible…

Sonic expected the Tornado to get caught in the shockwave and he saw his life flash before his eyes, but nothing happened. The shockwave continued underneath, but soon dissipated.

"We made it!" Sonic cried out.

Everyone felt their hearts beat again and all felt wet from their close encounter with death. All looked back again to see what was left of the island. The cloud was still there, but growing. As it did, it grew transparent. The island was charred black and wave roared against it to balance out what was lost. The base was gone…

"Sonic…" Dash asked quietly in Sonic's ear. "Do you think Shadow made it?"

Sonic was still stunned at the island's destruction, and said nothing.

**End of Part 1**


	2. Part 2

**Part 2**

"We were meant to live for so much more," we ask ourselves,

"We were meant to live for so much more…"

Meant to Live--Switchfoot ©2003

Chapter 8: Night of Fear

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Knuckles sat in the shade of a tree in a dark valley. The sun was beginning to set in the west and the scarlet Echidna had been working for almost 48 hours, searching for the Master Emerald shards. He thanked whatever power was above that the shards were spread out over a less larger area such as Sapphire Bay the last time the Master Emerald had shattered two years before with Chaos.

He figured that he nearly had all of them, but the only way to find that out was to go back to Angel Island and reforge the Master in Hidden Palace.

He relaxed for a time until darkness began to gather in around him. He got up, stretched and got back to his task.

He had gotten deeper in the valley when he glanced somewhere and nearly jumped out of his skin when he thought he saw a ghost, standing fluttering in the breeze to the right. He looked again, and saw that it was just a piece of white cloth hanging from seemingly nothing, being reflected in the moonlight that was beginning to radiate from the night sky.

There were also many pumpkins lying around on the floor, some carved with faces while some featureless.

Knuckles felt like it was Halloween as he walked through the pumpkin fields. He knew that Halloween was a bit far away still, being only early September, so he wondered why on Möbius would Halloween decorations be out so early. He recalled that humans have some radical economical view about holiday promotions that for some reason involve early Christmas promotions appearing in late July.

He shook his head at the thought. Humans are so weird…

He slightly stumbled over a few squashes lying here and there and found a sign lying against a few hay bales that read "Future Site of Pumpkin Hill Amusement Park--Opening in Late October." Ah, a theme park. That explained everything. He also espied a train with a painted jack o'lantern on the front. He also heard yet another shard resonance as he turned to view the train better.

He tromped towards the train and found the shard resting against one of the wheels of the main engine. It was as big as a football and glimmering in the moonlight.

"Well, I figure that I got all in this valley. Maybe I should head towards Sapphire City to see if I can do anything about Sonic….I wonder what is the deal with that…" Knuckles thought, as he turned to leave.

As soon as he turned, a chilly wind swept through the valley. It made an eerie noise as it blew. Knuckles couldn't help but shiver at the cold. He looked up in time to see one moon slowly being covered by a cloud. He could see it still in a hazy glow, but it soon faded away into the dark. It seems that a storm was blowing in.

Great, just great.

-----

A steady rain was pouring in Sapphire City and lightning flashed in the night. Although nature was violent that night, it didn't dampen the spirits of eight Möbians and chao inside the Sunset Resort.

There was a party for Sonic's successful "release" from jail and they were celebrating with some pizza.

"Ah, I thought I'd never get out of there!" Sonic said between mouthfuls of pizza. "This is what it feels to be free!"

"And I'm glad that no one was hurt when the island exploded," Sally added.

(Earlier, there was a news broadcast that showed that Shadow had been discovered setting charges, and the military and the eighth-grade class made it to the safety of an aircraft carrier in the ocean and therefore the only damage caused was the loss of the facility, a relatively minor loss. Sonic was given an embarrassed apology by some military personnel on the mainland.)

Dash and Frosty were talking about which toppings which they liked or hated the most. Dash happened to like pretty much all the flavors. Frosty didn't like the ones that had things like green peppers and pineapples on the pizza, being slightly carnivorous herself.

"Why do they put rabbit food on a pizza? Come on!" Frosty exclaimed.

"It's not that bad," replied Dash. "They're pretty good when on a bunch of there toppings, like this one." Dash held up a piece of a supreme pizza.

"Bleh! You can have that, but not me!" Frosty said, picking off a green pepper off of her pizza.

Amy and Cream were laughing and talking about various things while Tails was eating greedily his pizza; the excitement of the day took a big chunk of his energy and the smell of the pizza kicked his adolescence-metabolism to full power, so that he was drinking down fizzy sodas and just about anything he could see.

Sonic also talked all about the first time he escaped from the helicopter, but Tails saw an odd look on his face when he came to the place when he said that he used the Red Chaos Emerald to burn the way through the chain of the 'cuffs.

Night grew older and Amy had to leave to go back to her home. Sally, Cream and Cheese went to an adjacent room through a door that sat in the room, while the rest stayed in the room.

"Sonic?" Tails asked.

"Yeah?"

"What was with the odd look when you talked about the Red Chaos Emerald in the chopper?"

Sonic paused, sitting on the side of the bed. "Well, the Chaos Emeralds I had were confiscated from me, and as far as I know, they're still on the island."

"Oh…well, I still have one Emerald."

"What really bugs me was that Eggman was there."

Tails made the connection. "Do you think that he was after the Emeralds?"

"I dunno. The presence of Eggman, Mecha and Shadow on the island was strange. Whatever it is, I don't like it."

"Do you think we can go back there and see if we can find the Emeralds?"

"I wouldn't risk it. There was a laboratory there, and it likely had chemicals that I wouldn't like to find by accident there."

"Hmm, good point…well, I didn't see Eggman with any Emeralds…"

"Neither did I with Shadow." Sonic said, laying back. "I'm too tired to think about it."

"Ok, good night, Sonic!" Tails climbed on the bed and slithered under the covers.

"Hey! Wait for us!" said the two chao leaping on the bed with a ferocity unmatched by anything.

The two Möbians couldn't help a laugh as Dash and Frosty climbed into their appropriate owner's beds. Dash wouldn't be separated from Sonic if he could help it and cuddled as close as he could.

Sooner or later, sleep took over the four and all the world around slept through the stormy night.

-----

In a grey room, with wide windows looking down on a beautiful blue and green planet, marked with white, a hedgehog and a human girl were staring down at the planet, adoring its beauty.

"Shadow? What do you think it's like down there?"

The hedgehog put one hand on the glass. "I don't know, but I hope to know. All I know about that world is that the Professor who you're fortunate to call your grandfather says that his goal in life was to make the people down there happy through the realm of science."

There was a pause for a few moments, then Shadow spoke again. "Maria, I don't know anything anymore. Why was I created? What's my purpose here?"

"I know that everyone's made for a purpose, Shadow, and it's our job to find out what it is….I know you'll find yours."

"Maybe if I go down there…I'll find some answers…maybe."

"It would be nice to go down there. Maybe grandfather will take us down there sometime…"

Shadow put his head against the glass, closing his eyes.

When he opened them again, he was standing in the same room, looking at the same planet, but alone. It was times like this he missed Maria the most.

"Why so melancholy?" a high voice said from his side.

Shadow quickly turned to look and saw Rouge who had quietly entered the room. Shadow didn't say anything but looked back down at the planet.

"That was so unexpected of you, Shadow to come to rescue me back on the island. I never thought it of you, but your ability to use that Chaos Control you have certainly comes in handy."

Shadow hoped that she'd go away soon, but she didn't so any intention.

"You know," Shadow said at last. "I didn't come to rescue you; I came for the Emeralds."

Rouge gave a look that would pierce through any male heart that wasn't guarded, a look of hidden affection. "Maybe, but I believe that isn't all of the story…"

Rouge was interrupted by a clearing of the throat from behind. Shadow didn't turn to acknowledge the new presence, but Rouge looked irritated before turning. It was Dr. Robotnik.

"Hello, everyone. Are we ready for the demonstration?"

"Demonstration?" Rouge asked.

"Yes, with the Chaos Emeralds, we can provide a demonstration of what will happen if they do not comply to my new rule. This will mark the rise of the Robotnik Empire!"

Shadow masked his faced from everyone. Rouge asked, "When?"

"Tonight, after moonrise."

Shadow hadn't moved at all during the entire conversation, and Rouge wondered how a living, breathing creature could stand so still for such a long period of time.

"Well, I hope it'll be profitable. I'll see you boys tonight…" With that, Rouge left.

Robotnik waited until Rouge was safely out of earshot (which was quite a distance considering that Rouge was a bat and had keen hearing). "We only have six of the Emeralds, Shadow. Is that enough for the demonstration?"

"Yes. The Eclipse Cannon will charge fully by evening. Then, we'll show those pathetic humans the meaning of fear."

-----

The very next day showed Sonic racing again on Speed Highway, enjoying every ounce of freedom. Sally just shook her head as he outraced the Speed Highway police just like old times two years before.

Amy and Cream went to the mall to try on different clothes and just to have fun.

Tails took the three chao to the park where they had fun on the different equipment, while Tails seemed to be tinkering with the Yellow Chaos Emerald. The kitsune had been doing such ever since he got up. Sonic smiled; Tails was never satisfied unless he was doing an experiment of some kind.

Around lunchtime, they went to a fast-food restaurant where the chao played more with the toys from the kids' meals then eat their food. Tails ate, but got back to working with the Emerald.

They all went back to the park where Sonic asked Tails about what on Möbius was he working on.

"Oh, I'm hoping to perform an experiment with the Emerald."

"Like what?"

"I'm wondering if we can make artificial Chaos Emeralds."

Sonic whistled. "That's quite an experiment. Shouldn't you ask Knux?"

"Yeah, I'm hoping he'll show up soon. He said that he'd come as soon as he gets the Master Emerald back."

Almost on cue, a shadow fell over them. Sonic and Tails looked up and saw a shape slowing descending in circles above them. It took Sonic a bit to find out what it was, but he saw enough. "Hey! It's Knux! Wow, that was timely! Hi, Knux!" Sonic shouted up.

Knuckles looked down and waved. He then dropped down nearby and stalked up towards them. "Hey, Sonic. I see you broke out."

"Sort of. Thanks to Tails and the Cyclone. Did you find the Master?"

"For the most part. I'm not certain if I found all the pieces, but once I get back to the Island, I'll put the Master together again. It's able to tell me where the rest of the shards are if I didn't get all of them."

Sonic peered at Knuckles again. "Dude! You're soaking wet! What did that Rouge gal do? Drop the Master into a lake?"

Knuckles chuckled. "No. I got caught out in the storm last night as I was coming here."

"Well, that explains everything."

"Yes, and I'm beat."

Tails spoke next. "Hey, Knux. Do you think it's possible to make artificial Chaos Emeralds?"

Knuckles didn't answer for a bit, but finally replied. "I guess. It's been almost three thousand years since the Chaos Emeralds were first brought to life. You'd think that one could make more Chaos Emeralds, but that's a lost art."

"I at least want to try. I can only use the Emeralds for machines so if I could make more, I could use the fake Emeralds to power more stuff. I could spread my revolutionary energy supply."

"They probably wouldn't work as well as real Chaos Emeralds, you understand."

"Yeah, nothing works completely like the real thing," Sonic said.

"Well, I wanna see if I can try."

"Hey, I'll see if I can help you out. Let's go to the hotel where I can clean up and get some rest. Then we'll see about making these fake Emeralds."

"Cool!"

-----

Metal-Sonic stood in the control room, staring at the six Chaos Emeralds, shining brightly in their sockets like floodlights. He had wanted the power that these Chaos Emeralds can give, but being robotic had prevented him from getting their true power any more then just a simple power-boost when installed.

He also thought of Shadow as he stared deeply into the Emerald's facets. He claimed to be the ultimate lifeform. Just what was the ultimate lifeform anyway? Naturally his databanks displayed a lifeform that had ideal physical characteristics and was a living defiance of the Law of Entropy. That seems too basic of a definition for his interests.

He used his wireless connection to connect to the ARK's mainframe and did a search for the ultimate lifeform. Almost immediately, it brought up crypted documents, scanned sketches and many other related documents all under one title: Project Shadow.

Apparently there were different projects for this project. Some seemed non-consequential, while others caught his attention. He looked up prototypes of Project Shadow and found a picture of the supposed ultimate lifeform. Mecha mentally stared at it for a long while, when suddenly, he detected through aural sensors that someone was coming. He hastily closed all the documents and disconnected. It wouldn't do for either Shadow or Dr. Robotnik catching him snooping, although the latter didn't fear him as much.

In stepped Dr. Robotnik and Shadow, and the two crossed the narrow walkway towads the controls. "Hello, Mecha. I see that you are willing to watch the demonstration."

Mecha said nothing, but side-eyed Shadow who was focused on a screen with readouts.

"When the moon rises, the Robotnik Empire will rise…" the human smiled, allowing a laugh to escape. "Shadow. When shall my empire arise?"

"Moonrise is at 8:24 PM. We'll plan the demonstration for 8:30. Everyone in the colonies should be able to witness."

"Almost 30 minutes. Mecha, I will give you the cue to air my demands over wireless connection. Be ready."

"Yes, doctor."

-----

It was nigh evening in Station Square, and it found Tails and Knuckles working on their Emerald project. Knuckles was fascinated by Tails' calculations and layouts and by the project in itself. He had been studying up on Chaos Emeralds for almost 18 months and was drinking any new thing about them in. This experiment in making Chaos Emeralds kind of gave him a feeling of nostalgia about his ancestors.

Knuckles had supplied Tails with a topaz rock that he had found in the mines of Angel Island which was cut in the traditional diamond shape and looked an awful lot like a Chaos Emerald. There was only a subtle difference and the Echidna figured that even Eggman couldn't even tell the difference. Now if he was right, Tails and he could energize the topaz with the Chaos Emerald, giving the topaz power enough to glow.

Tails had been setting up a power apparatus where the Chaos Emerald sat propped up and wrapped in wires inside a bell jar, while the topaz was set up the same way. An energy-transfer machine sat in the middle and out of it protruded a mass of wires that would make a climbing vine jealous.

"Ready, Tails?" Knuckles asked, wiping his eyes.

"Ready as I'll ever be. I hope this works…"

Tails activated the switch and both gazed deeply and intently at the topaz.

Nothing happened for a good thirty seconds, but none were about to give up. They both knew that the Chaos Emerald had tremendous amounts of energy inside its small space, so it would take a long time for a dead gem to energize, so they waited.

The door flew open and in came Sonic with a chili dog. "Hey guys! How's it going?"

"Shh!" Knuckles and Tails hissed loudly and returned their gaze to the topaz. Sonic shrugged and looked at the dead rock. "Anything happening?" Sonic whispered.

"Not yet, but hush!" Knuckles whispered back.

"Ok, ok…"

All three stared at it for a long time. Sonic made the suggestion to turn off the lights so they could see any glow better and the other two agreed. After turning off the lights, they resumed their vigil.

After nearly ten minutes of straight waiting, Tails noticed something first. He noticed that in the heart of the topaz was a deep gold glow, but was barely noticeable. Knuckles began to see it to. Sonic grew impatient but waited…

Finally, the topaz began to flicker. All three jumped at the first flicker in surprised, but watched as it continued to flicker. The space between the flashes began to grow shorter, until finally, after almost thirty minutes of straight waiting, the light grew solid.

The two had whooped in delight, while Sonic kept asking loudly if the topaz was now a fake Chaos Emerald.

Tails waited a few more minutes and turned the transfer off. The real Chaos Emerald grew brighter again as its energy returned while the topaz was radiating strongly. Tails touched it and recognized its warmth. He dismantled the rest of the apparatus and took out the topaz. It felt a tad lighter now, and felt warm, like a summer afternoon. Knuckles studied it too. Sonic got a few glances at the "Emerald" as well.

"Looks like we have a Chaos Emerald, Tails."

"Yes!" Tails leapt for joy. His experiment had worked.

"Do you think it works the exact same as the Chaos Emeralds?" Sonic asked. "I know that the Supers came from the Chaos Emeralds, but run very differently."

"True, but we can't find out until we use it a way that only a Chaos Emerald would be used." Knuckles handled the fake Emerald. "But I'm sure it's pretty dang close."

Tails took the Emerald and was fondling with it. "This is so cool. I can't wait to tell Sally."

"You'd better keep it somewhere so we can distinguish it with the real Emerald," Knuckles suggested.

"Oh, I know! I have a compartment in the Cyclone where I usually keep the white one for Frosty, but since I don't have it, I'll just put it in there!"

"Good idea. Let's keep the real one here until you do," Sonic suggested.

Tails was out the door, clearly excited.

"Wow, I never knew that I'd ever see the day when Chaos Emeralds would be made," Knuckles said.

"Me neither."

"This should be great in case something happens to the real Emeralds."

"Like of one blows up or something?"

Knuckles smiled and sat up. "Ow, gosh, I'm sore."

"You and Tails have been up here for hours. Come on down. I'm sure Sally and the others are getting us a table for dinner in the cafeteria."

"At this point, I'll take any food."

Sonic and Knuckles ventured downstairs and found Sally, the chao and the two girls seated at a table.

"Hey, Sal!"

"Hi, Sonic. We just got the table. Where's Tails?"

"He ran off to the Cyclone. He needed to put something back."

At that moment, Tails ran in and was ready to talk about his success, which he did. Sally listened through the entire stream of chatter from the little fox's mouth, while the others ate their fill.

"Hey, I know I'm not much for walking, but you never lived until you see Station Square at night. C'mon!"

"Ooh, I love the pretty lights!" Frosty said, just as they left the hotel.

"Hey, Tails. Sometime you and me should hit Casinopolis again, just for old times' sake!"

"Sonic Hedgehog, you better not!" Sally said, being the one that doesn't approve of gambling.

"Ok, Sal," Sonic said with instant mellowness, but Tails caught him side-eyeing him with a rebellious glint in his eye.

The whole group walked around Station Square and were nearing the beach again when they past an electronics store. All the TVs inside were displaying different channels, but all at once, all changed to a very different display.

Amy noticed first. "Sonic! Look! It's Dr. Eggman!"

Sonic jumped and looked towards where Amy was pointing. All turned to watch.

"Oh, crap, he has his own theme music now?" Sonic said, but all were too focused to hear.

"Listen to me! All who have ears! Here what I have to say! I…am Dr. Robotnik, the greatest scientific genius off all time, and soon to be the world's ruler!"

Sonic rolled his eyes, and noticed that quite a crowd had gathered around them all. He also saw that a huge holoscreen high above Station Square was displaying the video too, subtitles on a scrolling marquee closer to ground level.

"I demand that the world surrender to me otherwise, you'll suffer greatly! I point you towards the moons arising…"

Sonic naturally turned to see the two moons arising in the horizon, over the ocean. The smaller, Little Planet was somewhat higher, while the larger but barren moon was just barely above the horizon.

Something attracted Sonic back to the TV screen and he saw that there was a third moon, brown and odd-looking. Suddenly, beams of light shot out of one half, and before anyone guessed what was about to happen, the lower half of the "moon" exploded, and revealed what it really was.

Through the asteroids now surrounding the "moon," Sonic could see the crude face of Eggman, and where the nose would be, a tall spire rose. Six flat metal pieces, all laiden with solar panels appeared, giving the "face" what looked like a moustache. Sonic felt his heart freeze. It looked like the Death Egg reincarnated, but yet it wasn't. The spire split into four, exposing a hot-green and glowing thinner spire.

The spire began to glow brightly. Sonic knew what was happening; he'd seen this sort of weaponry before. It was a giant laser cannon. He witnessed it fire.

Everyone looked up and saw a green beam of light fly clear across the sky, shedding an eerie green glow upon the earth. All watched mesmerized as the green light flew through the sky and slam into the moon.

All watched for two seconds as the beam bored into the moon, and all of the sudden, half of the moon faded into dust, melting away into space. The bang of the cannon reached their ears, which nearly through Sonic on the ground, but he didn't notice. He merely stared.

Amy turned as white as a ghost and broke down on the spot. Sally stood, mouth covered in her hands as a tear ran unchecked down her face. Tails' ears were laid back and looked like he was about to turn into sand. Frosty was in Tails' hands and she was crying hysterically into Tails' chest. Dash simply stared. Cream and Cheese were frightened nearly to the point of hysteria, as Cheese was trying to hide in Cream's ears while Cream was chewing her other ear in a sudden loss of security. Knuckles stared, but was made of tougher stuff. He shook Sonic out of his stupor and Sonic could tell by Knux's look that he was seething with anger. How dare Robotnik touch such a lovely creation?

Sonic nodded and began to share Knux's anger. Eggman was going to pay with his life.

Sonic glared at the TV, expecting to see Eggman laughing in supposed triumph, but found a countdown timer:

23:59:48:02 and counting.

Eggman reappeared. "You have twenty-four hours to surrender. Remember, 24 hours, or you'll suffer the same fate as the moon." A picture of the moon appeared, showing the extent of the damage. It was damaged clear to the core, which was glowing hotly red.

The countdown timer appeared, punctuated by the doctor's evil laughter.

Sonic hissed a curse. "You never give up, do you?" Sonic was obviously not happy with the situation.

"Let's get back to the hotel," Sally said.

All hurried back into the hotel, which was quite a feat as panicked people were too frightened to reason, and anarchy began to rise.

In the room, high above Station Square, everyone took in the situation.

"I can't believe Eggman would have the gall to destroy the moon!" Tails exclaimed, the emotions finally colliding in one mixture.

"Why does Dr. Eggman have to be so mean?" Cream said, who was trying to comfort a crying Cheese.

"What I wouldn't give to find Eggman in my power form…" Frosty said, remembering when she fought a robot by Dr. Robotnik.

"When I get my hands on Eggman…" Sonic said through his teeth.

"Calm down everyone!" Sally said. "I know what we saw was very frightening, but if we are to stop Eggman, we must put our heads together and figure out a plan."

"We only have twenty-four hours," Knuckles added. "That gives us until 8:30 tomorrow."

"How did Eggman ever get that much energy to destroy the moon like that?"

"Please, don't mention that!" Amy said. She never saw anything so frightening and didn't think seeing Metal-Sonic again would match that.

Sonic was quiet, then cursed aloud. "That's must be why they were on the island yesterday! They were after the Chaos Emeralds that I had! The Chaos Emeralds powered that huge cannon! Double rats!"

"Figures. Eggman's always after the Chaos Emeralds for something. He's been after them since the Death Egg," Knuckles added.

"Hey! I have an idea!"

"Shoot, Tails!"

Tails dove for the dresser drawer and pulled out the Yellow Chaos Emerald. "The Chaos Emeralds Knuckles told me act have electromagnetic properties. We can use the Emerald to help find Eggman. Knuckles, what would happen if a fake Emerald absorbs too much energy?"

"I'm not sure, but what I do know is that you don't want to be around if it does."

"Sounds like it'd blow up," Sonic said from the side.

"I heard it alters the surrounding Chaos field so much that it'll crush anything around."

"Which is perfect! If the Chaos Emeralds are the power source of that cannon, it'll not only shut down the power, but damage maybe even damage it beyond repair!"

"The kid's got a plan, all right," Knuckles said.

"There's only one hitch: we need to FIND the stupid cannon."

All were quiet for a second, the Dash spoke up.

"Doesn't Tails' machine have a tracer of some sort?"

"What do you mean, Dash?" Knuckles asked.

"You know, the kind that Tails uses to trace Sonic so he can find him. Can't we use it the next time we see Eggman?"

All eyes stared at Dash. "You are a genius, Dash!" Sonic said.

"But my tracer only works on two-way communicators."

"That shouldn't be too hard to find. Eggman never hides when he thinks he's on top. He'll rub his victory in our faces, and he's probably tormenting the leader of the colonies as we speak with his constant demands. What a joke." Sonic crossed his arms.

"The President is the leader here. Where's his office?" Knuckles asked.

"He wouldn't be at the office or I'm not a princess. Usually during times of crisis like this, they'd evacuate the president to keep him safe," Sally stated.

"So we'll need to hunt him down," Sonic finished. "I'm the fastest guy here, so I'll hunt him down on foot. Tails, you can man the skies and see if you can pick him up, k?"

"Got it!"

"Can we come with you?" Frosty and Dash asked in unison.

"In the Tornado." Sonic said. "I don't wanna drop you, Dash at the speeds I'm gonna go. You'd be ground into hamburger."

"Cool!"

"Time's ticking, Sonic; let's go!" Tails cut in.

The two Möbians and chao zipped out the door.

"Knuckles, can I ask you a favor?" Sally asked.

"Sure, what?"

"Amy needs to go home, and I don't think the streets are safe right now. Can you take her home for me?"

Amy began to stay she wanted to stay, but knew that there was nothing she could do now and she'd just be in the way.

"Sure. I don't want to stay cooped up now anyway. I don't even feel like sleeping now."

"Me neither," Sally said to herself quietly. After witnessing such an experience, sleep was not an option.

Chapter 9: The Search for Eggman

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10:30 PM; 22 hours till next fire…

The fateful night barely began. Rouge had witnessed the demonstration but had no idea that the moon would be devastated. It first came into her heart that she may have made her first mistake in teaming up with Shadow and Robotnik, but her payment from the agency came first. Jewels were always her first love, and no one would get in the way.

She remembered the feeling she had when she first held that Chaos Emerald in the vault. She always had a lust for jewels, but when she first gripped that cold blue gem, her lust grew ten fold, and she then had a feeling of greed growing in her ever since. She wanted a Chaos Emerald all right, not for Robotnik or Shadow, but herself! No, not just one Emerald…

All seven.

And she wouldn't rest until all seven were hers.

But back to the demonstration, she was infuriated that they had the gall to destroy the moon! Did they realize the significance it had with the planet? Rouge glanced up at the moon, which was a dirty grey from its own dust. She used to love watching the moon, for it always reminded her of pearls, which were not as pretty as jewels, she thought, but were nearly just as valuable as sapphires and emeralds.

Suddenly, a whoosh and a bright blur raced by her suddenly that it nearly carried her with it! Her first impulse was to shout after it saying something like "You nearly ran me over, you idiot!" but something told her that something moving at that speed wouldn't hear her at all.

The blur raced by again, but through a street that was in front of her. Oh, she knew who that was. That was Sonic the Hedgehog, claimed to be the fastest being on the planet, but she saw Shadow race around so she wondered in the former was truly as fast as he claimed to be, especially compared to Shadow.

The blur raced by once again and Rouge decided to get off the street before she became roadkill. She fluttered up to the top of a building.

It was then she saw a biplane fly over ahead. Normally she wouldn't have thought anything of it, but what her sharp ears caught what was made that plane the more attractive.

She overheard thus over the plane engine:

"Wow, what's in here?" a high voice said.

"Please don't mess what's inside, Dash. That took me and Knux forever to get."

A brief pause. "It's just a Chaos Emerald."

The rest was drowned by distance, but it was enough for Rouge. So THEY had the last Chaos Emerald. Well, they wouldn't have it for long.

It was such a shame that she couldn't get it now, but she was sure she could get it later. Did she have something to tell the boys…

-----

"Sheesh, there seems to be a lot of police around where you don't need 'em!"

Tails was in the Tornado with Dash and Frosty, looking for the President. Sonic had just voice his disgust at roadblocks.

"Good thing I'm in the air then." Tails couldn't help but smile. "I still haven't been able to find the president."

"Gaw…"

"I'll check the Speed Highway. Meet me there, k?"

"Got it."

-----

4:30 AM

16 hours to next fire…

"Confounded piece of technology! Work!"

Robotnik dealt the consoles yet another kick. Shadow and Metal-Sonic were beside more screens completely ignoring Robotnik's temper tantrum.

"Is your master so short tempered to equipment like this?" Shadow asked Mecha coldly.

Mecha shot a glare at Shadow that the non-robotic individual wondered later why he didn't flinch. "He is NOT my master…" Mecha said it quietly, as he eyed Robotnik kicking another console.

"Then why are you still with him?"

"It is none of your business, hedgehog." Mecha was beginning to show the same ferocity he would show for Sonic.

"You seem ferocious enough. You could've killed the doctor a long time before once you possessed the will."

Shadow could feel Mecha's internal core radiating energy to feed the emotions that Mecha now possessed.

"It…is…none…of…your...business…" Mecha was clearly furious.

Shadow was not intimidated by a robot, and from what he gathered, the other hedgehog gave Mecha a hard enough time and he reasoned that he could do the same.

"Listen, Metal-Sonic. I am the ultimate lifeform. Threaten me and you threaten your own existence. Remember that. You have no idea what I can offer you."

"What knowledge of you of bio-robotics?"

"Bio-robotics? You are interested in upgrading your metal into more biological reminiscent material?"

Metal-Sonic realized his error. He had just admitted his weakness indirectly, and Shadow knew it. The first impulse was to slaughter Shadow on the spot, but with Dr. Robotnik nearby, it wouldn't be justifiable.

"Yes, and as I said before…"

"I heard enough. I have something to show you…later. Meet me in the science bay, and I'll show you something that may interest you."

Metal-Sonic debated thrashing Shadow just the same, but what Shadow offered for some reason peeked his curiosity. What did Shadow have in mind?

"What is all the ruckus about?"

All heads turned to see Rouge strutting into the dark control room. She had returned and had a look of confidence on her.

"Well, that was some demonstration. I was just down there and the city is utter chaos! Does this mean we control the city and do as we choose?"

Shadow glanced at the computer readouts and gave a disgusted look. "At this rate, the Eclipse will not be ready at the specified time. If we're going to use the cannon again, we will need the last Chaos Emerald."

Robotnik turned fully to Rouge. "Where have you been?"

Rouge eyes widened so slightly in innocence that it was barely noticeable. "Something happen?"

"The doctor's terms of surrender fell on deaf ears. Humans can unite under one purpose and it appears that purpose has been given," Metal-Sonic said, still recovering from his outburst.

Rouge gave a disgusted sigh. "Look at you, kicking and having a tantrum like a little kid! I find this embarrassing."

"Don't forget YOU'RE part of the bargain, bat girl! You said you'd get me the Chaos Emeralds. Where is my last Emerald?"

"Do we have a connection to the Internet down on the surface?"

"Why?"

"You'll find out."

Rouge strutted up to the control panel, connected to the surface Internet connections, and quickly web-searched for the right article. "Here you go. Read this?"

Robotnik glared at the screen for a moment, reading the contents of the screen. "Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles "Tails" Prower honored at City Hall for saving Sapphire City from a missile attack and water monster. In honor of their brave and heroic deeds, they were given the Chaos Emeralds and two chao for reward."

"Look at the colored photograph with the fox and compare it to the Emeralds we have," Rouge pointed out.

Robotnik glanced at the picture, then at the six glowing Emeralds. It took a bit to make the connection, then he noticed that the fox handled the Yellow Emerald, while that was only Emerald that they didn't have.

Robotnik's mood had flip-flopped, and he cleared his throat to excuse his former outburst. "This makes things much easier. Go down to the surface and get me that Emerald! I must have it and I will have it!"

"Yes, doctor. Don't need to be pushy…"

The doctor left through the door, muttering all the while. "Well, handsome? Are you just standing there or are you going to help me?"

Shadow didn't respond at first, but smoothly skated out of the room. Rouge turned away but heard something just as Shadow disappeared from sight. "As you wish…Maria."

Rouge turned slightly towards the door, surprised. Maria? Who's she?

She turned again in time just to see Metal-Sonic stalk by, and Rouge could tell by his eyes that he was angry. The white bat thought it prudent not to say anything to the robot and just let him pass, and he did so.

As the robot slipped into darkness behind her, she waited a few more moments until she felt that she was completely alone, but even then, she pulled out a scan probe and let it run for a full minute before she thought it safe.

When she was convinced, she pulled out her head-piece and activated. "This is Rouge's mission log: entry 19-A. I have not made any progress in research Project Shadow. I will intensify my studies and have a follow-up report within 10 hours. And a reminder: don't forget my jewels."

Rouge deactivated the head-piece and strolled out.

-----

5 AM

15 hours, 30 minutes till cannon fire

"I hope I don't wreck into anybody on here…" Tails said, worried.

"It's empty, kid." Sonic said from the side of the Cyclone, which was now in car formation. "I can run ahead of you so I can tell you if things get messy up ahead."

"Yeah…" Tails still looked at the open stretch of highway as if it was covered with landmines.

"C'mon, it'll be a piece of chili dog," Sonic smiled. "We got less then 17 hours until Eggman fires again. It's now or never."

Sonic took off down the Speed Highway at a run, quickly accelerating. Tails waited one moment, then went off after him in the Cyclone.

The experience was both exciting and frightening for the crew of the Cyclone. Tails was accelerating to near 200 miles and hour and nearly spilled around the tight turns. Tails grit his teeth and all concentration went to what was in front of him.

Dash and Frosty were feeling a little seasick with Tails' driving experience, but tried hard not to throw up, having visions of what people would think if they saw an interesting color on the pavement.

The com buzzed and Tails made a quick use of the fingers to let go of the steering wheel with one hand, activate the com and grip the wheel again. "Yeah?"

"Whoa, Tails, don't need to shout. I think I found them! There's a limo about 50 feet in front of me and it's in a HUGE line of SUVs. The limo has some flags on the antennas. If that's not a presidential limo, I'm Eggman. Juice up here, man!" Sonic said.

"All right, Sonic!"

Tails made a few more terms and saw a line of black cars along a straight-line of highway. He pulled along the cars, secretly hoping that he would attract attention. That was the situation when he nearly jumped when he heard a slight bump on the other side. He looked at that side expecting to see a guide-rail, but found the familiar figure of Sonic the Hedgehog.

"Heya, kid."

"Don't…scare me like that!" Tails breathed.

"Sorry. Hey, better get to the limo. I was just there and Eggman's having a little chat to the President. Pretty boring actually…"

"All right…" Tails peered ahead and saw the limo, which to him stuck out of the line of SUVs like a sore thumb.

Tails edged up to the limo and activated the tracer. Good, he was within range. Didn't want to make a scene by getting too close. Sonic was running alongside the limo and was apparently trying to see through the tinted the window, but was having no success. Sonic, one never to give up, jumped up on the rear bumper and climbed up the car.

"Sonic! What are you doing?" Tails hissed.

"I'm trying to see what Eggman has to say. Here, I'll let you listen in!" Sonic held his wrist towards the open skylight to let Tails hear…

"…make things in a nutshell, shall we Mr. President? It's simple: surrender the control of the colonies to the Robotnik Empire; otherwise…" said Robotnik.

"Otherwise…?" said a deeper voice that Tails guessed to be the President.

Tails could imagine Eggman smiling. "Otherwise, the colonies will be struck first and will resemble your moon. You have less then 17 hours to decide. I expect you to be sensible, Mr. President."

"Reasonable, my tail, Eggman!" said a very familiar voice.

Tails looked up to see Sonic leap into the limo.

"Sonic, you idiot!" Tails hissed again. He heard some scrambling through the com, and then heard some beeping. Tails saw that the trace completed. "Yes…huh?" Tails read the readout. "The space colony ARK?"

The scuffle ended with a "Ha, chicken Eggman. Don't worry, Mr. President. I have a friend outside who's been tracing the whole thing. Gimme a second…"

The limo door opened and out stepped a swaggering hedgehog. "Hey, Tails. You got the trace?"

"Yeah! It came from the space colony ARK!" Tails shouted.

"The space colony ARK? Wow…wait till they hear this…"

-----

Shadow and Metal-Sonic were in the science bay, looking over what Shadow claimed to be Professor Gerald's technical journals, and Metal-Sonic was impressed.

"It seems that Dr. Robotnik did not get his discoveries in bio-robotics from his own experimentations. It seems that he borrowed the technology from Professor Gerald. According to these readouts, he truly accomplished the science of biophysics." Metal-Sonic pulled up more journals.

"Yes, indeed. The Professor invented this revolutionary form of metalwork, calling it simply 'bio-metal.' It was originally created for artificial limbs, but it was soon expanded to other uses. Professor Gerald introduced this on Möbius 55 years ago. Unfortunately, when the colony was shut down, the technology was also abandoned."

"Foolish humans," Metal-Sonic growled. "And now the technology is sitting right here. This is my golden opportunity to become…living."

Shadow barely blinked, but smiled coldly.

"This is what I need to avenge myself, and finally be rid of that hedgehog!"

"The hedgehog, you mean that blue hedgehog?"

"Yes…" Mecha's eyes dimmed.

"Why that hedgehog? There's nothing special about him…"

"He's organic!" Mecha hissed. "He has capabilities that a robot can never hope to match! He can heal himself in certain amounts of time! He's more flexible! The only thing that I DO have over him is a weapon system, but he can cancel out that advantage with everything else he has! I need a complex power core to run, while the hedgehog only needs a food intake!"

Shadow closed his eyes and turned away. "The material is before you. The only thing that stops you is weighing the consequences of upgrading to bio-metal."

"Yes, I would have to sacrifice my superior weapon systems to acquire the flexibility of this substance…" Metal-Sonic tapped where his cheek would be in thought. "But the hedgehog has been able to dodge all my attacks by my weaponry. A sudden switch in tactics is bound to throw him off however…"

Mecha glanced at Shadow and found him to be gone. Shadow was like a ghost and seemed to simply disappear if one wasn't paying attention. Mecha didn't stay wondering for long and returned to Professor Gerald's notes.

He then began to wonder if bio-metal had any reaction to the power of Chaos Emeralds. He looked up anything that would give any information about that question, but unfortunately, Professor Gerald had not tested the substance with Chaos energy.

A loss, but one that could be reconciled with research of his own. He downloaded the notes into his internal memory banks, making a "mental note" to transfer them to a more compatible computer later.

He closed the documents on the computers and left the room as if he never was there.

-----

9:26 AM

11 hours, 3 minutes and 35 seconds to fire

Earlier that morning, Sonic and Tails had returned to the hotel and told Sally all about what the trace gave. The chao napped for a time while the others had a little conference.

"The space colony ARK?" Sally exclaimed.

"Imagine my shock," Tails said. "That space colony hasn't been used for over 50 years!"

"Perfect for Eggman. I bet it's like a second Death Egg to him," Sonic said from the side.

"But how did he get up there?" Tails wondered. "You'd think people around would've heard something about a launch."

"Or he had a teleporter in another base," Knuckles added.

"He still has the Final Egg base in the Mystic Ruins…" Sonic said suddenly.

"I figured he'd ditch that base after the loss of both Egg Carriers. He's always starting from scratch."

Knuckles snapped his fingers. "Wait, I think I know where Eggman's launch base is…"

A few hours later, after a long ride in a crammed Cyclone, the Möbians and the chao were standing in the Dagro Desert, which was by now heating up greatly, causing the crew to sweat and pant. All were there: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Dash, Frosty, Sally, Cream, Cheese and to Sonic's dismay, Amy, who caught them leaving the hotel.

"I still don't understand why we had to bring the two girls, let alone Amy."

"And leave them unsupervised? Robotnik is resourceful and he could find a way to exploit there being alone, and could use them to distract us," Sally replied.

"He could do that on the ARK too, Sally. With the technology that could be hidden up there, he could catch them before we said 'kumquat.'"

"Do you have a better idea?"

Sonic thought for a moment, but growled deeply, "No…"

"And besides, you're in the more danger with you having the Chaos Emerald. Doubtless Eggman will try everything to get it from you, so he may be distracted from us."

"That's a point, I guess…"

There was a pause, then Knuckles said. "There it is."

Sonic and Sally looked up and saw two pyramids in the distance.

"The pyramids? Eggman's been hiding in those?" Sonic shielded his eyes from the bright sun.

"I'm sure of it. I saw Eggman as well as Rouge leave towards those pyramids. Robotnik has no love for historical artifacts, so why else towards the pyramids."

"Good thinking, Knux," Sonic patted Knuckles' shoulder. "Let's find a way to get up to that space station, and then destroy that cannon, and kick their imperial butts!"

"I can't believe Dr. Eggman would use such a beautiful place to build a base on!" Amy said, appalled.

"Believe it," punctuated Dash, swigging a bottle of water.

"Well why are we standing here chewing the flab? We gotta get in there!" Frosty said loudly.

"Sure thing, Frost, and it's 'chewing the fat,'" Sonic corrected.

"Whatever."

It was a hard run to the pyramid for the nine; sand is not a pleasant thing to run on, and the sun constantly beating down mercilessly on the desert, which made their eyes hurt. The shade of Eggman's base ahead proved ironically welcoming.

There were many stone ruins at the base and all were very wary, and Sonic half-expected to see red-glowing eyes in the shadows, but he saw none. The creeping through the ruins was uneventful except when Cream saw a large black scorpion in the shade and nearly freaked. Knuckles killed it with a quick stamp of the foot for he knew that black scorpions were very poisonous and could be fatal to anyone who was unfortunately stung.

All in all, they came to a dark opening halfway up the pyramid: the entrance in.

"Well, here we go, guys. Here we come, Eggman…" Sonic said, half-listening to his voice echo down the passageway.

All began going down the passage, the only sound coming from the Cyclone's footfalls.

After they disappeared into the darkness, something emerged from the shadows off to the right. It didn't leave the shadows, for its black color was a target for the sun which made the figure uncomfortable. It whispered into a communicator.

"Doctor, they're entering the pyramid, and I know that the fox has the Emerald. I heard the blue hedgehog talking to a chipmunk about a Chaos Emerald."

"Excellent. I shall send Metal-Sonic to take care of them. Come back to the ARK, Shadow."

"Yes, doctor."

There was a green flash and he was gone.

Chapter 10: Hidden Base

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rouge was in the control room of the ARK. She was never able to shake off her lust for the Emeralds, and being in the same room as six of them obviously didn't help her, but she figured looking was better then nothing.

Unfortunately, she was wrong. The more she looked at the Emeralds, the more she wanted them. She had a personal affection for the violet one. It wasn't the first she ever touched (that was the dark blue one), but when she took it from the vault back on the Prison Island, it was the only Emerald of the three she took that felt the most different, and she dearly wanted to get a better look at it, but she knew that Shadow nor Robotnik would stand for it.

Her thoughts were interrupted when her com buzzed. "Yes?"

It was Robotnik. She'd rather it be Shadow. "Rouge. I'm having a hard time running the mechanisms here. If I intend to use this space station, I must have complete control of it. Activate the machinery via the ARK controls."

"Yes, doctor, oh, but I need to know one thing?"

"Yes?"

"I'll need the password to get into the computer. Can you lend me it?"

"It is M-A-R-I-A. Now, hurry up!"

Rouge signed off without saying goodbye, but she figured that Robotnik wouldn't have done any different. She smiled coldly in triumph. "That doctor is so easy…"

She typed the password in. "Maria, huh? Where have I heard that before?" Rouge thought for half a second, but shrugged it off. She didn't have much time. She activated the machinery of the ARK and could hear deep rumbling in the space station…just to keep Eggman busy.

Then, there was something else. Rouge suddenly had a feeling that something else was with her. She spun around, expecting Shadow, but the door was closed. The feeling didn't go away still. The thought that it was her conscience was there for only a split second, but what she was doing was her job, and besides, she ignored her conscience, otherwise she wouldn't have all those jewels that she has now. From a great distance in her mind, she recalled legends of a mythical force that seemed to impress its power on anyone or anything that seemed to fill it with rage.

Still wondering about the feeling, for it felt…wrong…for a second, she turned to the screens again, and pulled up files resulting from the search under the terms "Project Shadow" and "ultimate lifeform." Interestingly enough, she found that the latter search entry was used recently.

She found detailed sketches, chemical formulas and what seemed to be similar to a mission log, describing the times of the project in chronological order.

She figured that time was against her and knew that there was more about this Project Shadow that would take a lot of time to go over. She decided to close the programs and print them out from a more…isolated computer terminal.

She left, under the excuse I said before, but in her heart of hearts, she was deeply spooked about what on earth was in the darkness below and what she felt.

-----

Robotnik was monitoring the electrical currents in a power box that seemed to be neglected for a century, when he felt a sense of foreboding, as if something was suddenly wrong about being here. He peered around, as if trying to see something, but not succeeding, he returned to the power box, but couldn't help peering over his shoulder once in a while.

He had never known pure evil, although he convinced himself that there was none worse them him save the devil, but he would soon find out differently.

-----

Shadow was in his typical mode of thought: alone in a dark room, reflecting in personal memories, when he suddenly felt an alien presence that distracted him. He turned, expecting to see something, but there was nothing, except the closed door that he had closed to prevent being disturbed. He was sure he felt something…

-----

Back in the control room, a screen announced that a containment pod in the ARK had been activated and is feeding power to it.

-----

Back on the surface, the troop was wandering in the deep dark caverns of the hidden base of Eggman's. Sonic's phosphorescent bracelet proved invaluable for it radiated a rich blue light that penetrated the gloom of the tunnels.

They had met the beetle robot that was patrolling the halls, but Sonic took care of it quickly thanks to the Power Ring that he kept in his glove in case a normal spin-dash proved ineffective.

It wasn't long until they came to the lit interior where many a torch gave their warm glow.

"Eggman's got some serious problems. Check out that statue!" Sonic pointed out a cobra statue which now had Eggman's face carved into it.

Knuckles rolled his eyes while the others grimaced at the rather grotesque image.

After some more hiking, they soon came to the three-keyhole gate.

"Looks like we're getting closer…" Tails said.

"Yep. I sure hope that Eggman left us a few shuttles around here."

Knuckles was tapping on the stone gate and testing it for strength. "It's locked. We'll need the keys."

"Can't we just punch a hole into it?" Sally asked from the Cyclone.

"Nope, it's too thick and sturdy," Knuckles said. "If you used rockets against it, it'll take us with it, and I'm sure the best it would do is to get rid of the paint."

"Ah, we can find the keys, right Knux?" Sonic said, smiling.

"Hey!" Knuckles straightened up. "Why do I have to find the keys?"

"We'll ALL look, so there's no use arguing," Sally said. "Sonic? Knuckles? You go as one group. Tails? You take the Cyclone and keep the chao and Cream with you."

"But what about you? And me?" Amy asked, who was digging her hammer out of the Cyclone.

"I have a laser pistol. You can come with me."

Sonic was concerned. What if Sally ran into Metal-Sonic, who was likely here. "Uh, Sal? Wouldn't it be better if Amy went with Knux? If Mecha is here, I'd rather have Amy or you with better protection."

Amy looked insulted, as if Sonic just said that she couldn't fight worth squat, but Sally saw the wisdom in that. "Yes, Knuckles can much better handle anything better then either of us."

"C'mon, let's get going! We only have 9 hours before Eggman decides to fire again!" Tails said from the Cyclone.

"Got it, kid. Let's split!" Sonic said. "Good thing there are only three hallways."

And the troop split: Sonic and Sally went down the left hall; Tails, the chao and Cream down the center, while Knuckles and Amy went down the right hall.

As soon as they left, something dropped down from the ceiling with a clang. It was Metal-Sonic who had overheard the entire plan. "Perfect, hedgehog, I can destroy each of your group one by one and you'd be too late to stop me."

-----

Rouge was in a lighted chamber looking at the computer while a printer was printing out vital information on the screen about Project Shadow. Light came from the planet and even from the sun itself, but the reason why Rouge had turned on the lights was to eliminate every shadow in the room. Her security in this wonderful but mysterious space station had been severely shaken since her experience in the control room.

Suddenly, she was distracted by a photo of one of the ultimate lifeform, the Project Shadow prototype…

Studying the picture and reading the accompanying notes made her think about Shadow.

The printer spent forth its last printout, and the bat scooped them up, straightened them out and stuffed them into a sack that fit nicely between her wings.

Rouge knew that she must get this down to the agency as fast as she could, but what excuse could she give for her absence? She figured that Eggman could be easily enough tricked, but Shadow was always suspicious and she was certain that the black hedgehog suspected her for treachery.

She weighed her situation and decided that she'd better wait until both were off their guard; otherwise, her mission would never be completed, to say mildly.

-----

"Dusty…" coughed Sonic.

Sonic and Sally were in a room which was half-filled with sand. Neither had found anything like keys, and both knew that they needed to hurry.

The other teams were having no better luck. Tails had wondered into a huge generator room where the noise annoyed him. Knuckles and Amy wandered into where a royal tomb was, stripped of its contents. The chao were more looking in awe at the rooms then looking for keys.

Sonic and Sally had wandered out of the sand room and found themselves in a room marked with old wall paintings of scorpions, and littered with treasure chests.

"A treasure room!" Sally said.

"A perfect place to find some keys if you ask me," Sonic said. "Let's check out the crates."

It was 15 minutes of searching through all the room, the chests and crates, but the only thing that they found was what looked like a brass bracelet with a fire-red ruby embedded in it. Strange lettering littered around the band.

"Nothing," Sally said, panting.

"Ditto. Didn't find diddly except for this cool bracelet." Sonic said. "Meh, I'll take it with me. It's not like nobody else took anything from this chamber." Sonic slipped the bracelet onto his left wrist with the glowing phosphorescent crystal bracelet.

"C'mon, let's go…" Sally said, heading back to the sand room.

They had reached the sand room when the unthinkable happened. There was a deep clank, and the doors slammed shut, and locked.

"Whoa! What happened?"

There was some hellish laughter that sounded robotic, and all the sudden, the sand started pouring into a whirlpool in the center of the room.

"Oh, gosh! A sandtrap!" Sonic said. He was very familiar with them, after running through the Sandopolis pyramids when Knuckles was not on their side. "We gotta get out of here.

Sonic grabbed Sally's hand for she was sliding towards the spiral. Sonic was trying to brace the wall or grab onto anything there, but the wall was featureless.

"Sonic! What are we going to do?" Sally shouted.

"Working on it…" Sonic was peering for anything in the room that would help, and as he did, Sally grasped his hand with both of hers, Sonic being the stronger. Sally felt something under the glove and knew what it was. "Sonic! Your Power Ring!"

Sonic's eyes lit up in remembrance and he jammed the ring onto his finger. "Hang on, Sal! I'm gonna blast through that door over there!"

Sally complied and Sonic launched over the flowing sands and broke through the strong wood doors. The ring didn't give out until they reached the other end of the hall.

Both lay on the floor panting.

"We're safe now…" Sally said.

"For now," Sonic peered back. "What happened in there?"

Little did they know that similar trouble was happening to the other groups. Knuckles and Amy were searching up and down a featureless corridor for any sign of false bricks, when the walls started closing in. Knuckles grabbed Amy and bolted, narrowly escaping into a room painted exotically with various snake patterns. They wondered the same thing, while Amy panted from fright.

The attacks, if that's what they could be called, were happening at various times. Sonic and Sally had run into a room where the floor dropped down revealing a pit full of razor-sharp spines, ready to impale anyone who was unfortunate to be standing there. Sonic and Sally saw that there were several bones below as well.

Tails, the chao and Cream had just escaped a room with swinging blades like pendulums were thriving.

"Good grief!" Sonic shouted. "I never thought Eggman to take on the Indiana Jones style…"

Knuckles nearly got toasted when another narrow corridor was lined with inactive flame-jets that suddenly became active. Amy thankfully had obeyed her instincts and stayed outside of the corridor. Knuckles smelled of smoke after he crawled out.

For all, the search quickly turned from a search for a way in to simple survival, which wasn't so simple. All the Möbians met again in the center room with the big generator. Besides the room with the keyhole door, it was the only one that didn't have a trap…or so one they haven't discovered yet.

"Gosh, I'm beat…" Dash said, leaning against the Cyclone seat.

"I never thought I'd get out of there…" Knuckles said, a little black from smoke.

"So much for that break-in…" Sonic sighed, who was sandy-looking.

All were huddled against the wire-mesh casing of the generator, panting from their share of adrenaline rushes.

"And we still haven't found the keys."

"That's because, they're right here…" a voice said from above.

Sonic leapt up and looked around. "Mecha!"

Metal-Sonic dropped down and landed with a clang behind Sonic who reacted by jumping away and turning to face the assassin robot.

"Greetings, my dear hedgehog." There was no friendly intention behind that greeting, Sonic knew.

"You caused all those traps to go off!" Tails said from the Cyclone.

"I did. Very perceptive, young one…"

"Like that's gonna keep me from smashing Eggman's plans, Mecha," Sonic was now growing angry from the many attempts on everyone's lives.

Metal-Sonic hovered off the ground. "You still need these keys to get in, hedgehog." Mecha held up a ring with three keys on it.

Sonic spat, "How do we even know those are the real thing?"

"You don't. But the fact remains. I have keys; you don't. The only way to get them is to catch me…"

With that, Mecha took off down a hall. Guided by instinct, Sonic took off after him.

"Sonic! Come back!" Tails shouted after him.

"I'll go after him. If we can catch Mecha, we can finally get out of here," Knuckles said suddenly, and took off down the hall.

"But how?" Sally shouted after him.

"I have an idea!"

-----

Robotnik wasn't worried about the infiltration within his base, and was very confident that Mecha would deal with them well enough. He was looking up the schematics about the Eclipse Cannon to study how it worked.

His mind began to wonder. What was the worth of destroying Möbius if they refused? His goal was always world domination, and the only thing that was really standing in his way was that blasted Sonic, who had destroyed the former Death Egg, his biggest creation ever, literally blew up his Flicky Island projects, brought low the almighty Egg Carrier and more.

World domination. It seemed simple enough, but now it was becoming tiresome, being beaten every single time. It was made harder after losing Robotropolis due to lack of resources, which was no doubt by now dismantled by the Möbians, led by that rebel Princess Sally Acorn no doubt.

But back to his original train of thought, he wondered at the wisdom of using the Eclipse Cannon upon the planet. The laser beam was too large to be repelled so it was a perfect mass destruction weapon, but should it be ever used as a threatening tool, as it was the night before?

What if the planet didn't surrender? Would he have to fire the Eclipse Cannon? If he did, his goal for world domination may suffer, for the world may not even exist after the first fire. If he didn't, he would never be taken seriously again, he figured, a double-blow, but which would be worse?

Curses! He was now in a trap of his own making! It seemed picture-perfect at the time, but now, he was stuck, and he didn't know how to get out of this one.

-----

Sonic was having a hard time. He had encountered the flame-jet hall and just barely made it. Mecha proved to be a really slimy fish, for he seemed to be able to take turns sharply without even slowing down. And all the while, Mecha would be setting off traps just as Sonic was running into them.

Mecha would also switch tactics and would occasionally hide in a shadow and just as Sonic would run last, he would lash out with his claws and take off down another hall, just as Sonic would recover from the blow.

"I told you, hedgehog. I will best you one of these days…"

Sonic was so concentrated on catching Mecha that he nearly mowed Knuckles down.

"Knuckles!" Sonic shouted, after picking himself up.

"Sonic, you can't catch him like this. He'll keep going until we finally get killed in the traps." Knuckles motioned to the next hall which had swinging pendulum blades.

"Do you have a better idea?" Sonic said, steaming.

"Actually, I do. Remember your birthday present?"

-----

Shadow was unaware of Robotnik's problem, but he began to sense the problem in letting the human fire the Cannon. He knew that the doctor had a brain, but after some conversations with his assassin robot, Metal-Sonic, he began to wonder if Robotnik would be capable of destroying a planet?

He had seen humans: some pleasant, like Maria; while others, cruel, but he never saw one able to go so low to destroy an entire planet for his own gain. He began to suspect the doctor to becoming weak come fire time.

Maybe he should be there. The thought of Maria was enough for him to destroy the planet in itself.

-----

Mecha was waiting at the other end of the blade hall, high up on a ledge that hung over the opening. He waited for a considerable lengthy amount of time, in comparison to how long the hedgehog would stumble out. For a brief moment, Metal-Sonic considered that the hedgehog had given up.

Ah, he could sense a rush. But what came out surprised him most of all. The hedgehog of course, but was now glowing the colors of the Chaos Emeralds and floating off the ground.

Hyper Sonic.

Mecha bolted. He had fought Sonic in Super mode, and had no desire to repeat that humiliation. But Hyper Sonic had other plans. He had worked hard with Knuckles to activate the Super Emerald belt, and had succeeded. Now HE was in charge…

Sonic chased Mecha through the halls, completely ignoring the traps for they no longer harmed him. He glorified in speed and could match Mecha's turns with a quick one of his own, energy stars trailed in his wake.

Mecha doubled-back into the main generator chamber where all saw him enter. Knuckles had reached the room a few moments before after helping Sonic with the belt and watched Mecha fly in, followed by Hyper Sonic.

"What is THAT?" Dash exclaimed, seeing the brightly colored hedgehog.

"That's Sonic!" Tails answered. "He's Hyper now! Now Mecha's gonna get it!"

"It's so…pretty…" Frosty said, but winced as Mecha nearly got his head beat in when Hyper Sonic and the robot met at a turn. Mecha picked himself up, but was shoved back onto the ground by Sonic.

Chaos energy ran by the Super Emeralds reacts differently on robots, for Mecha didn't go into a power surge, much to Sonic's disappointment; however, Sonic was able to pull the keys out of Mecha's grasp, and decided to go a step further.

Knuckles and the entire crew watched Mecha fly by and slam into the nearby wall. The wall, being old cracked under the force. Mecha's internal systems couldn't withstand that kind of forced and were forced to shut down to auto repair.

Hyper Sonic saw that Mecha wouldn't rise anytime soon and decharged. "Gosh, I'm so glad we found a way to use that belt. It's freakin' awesome…"

Knuckles and the crew walked up to Sonic, who was in high spirits at kicking Mecha's butt. "Let's get back to the door."

It was quite a walk back to the door, for all were expecting the hallway they were in to do something: release cobras, turn to dust, you name it, they thought it.

They soon came to the room with the door, and Sonic stepped up to the door and use the keys in the locks. It was a little while for there was no indication where which key went where, so Sonic had to guess.

After a time, all the locks were disabled and the door slid open, and revealed the inner chambers.

"Well, that wasn't so bad…" Knuckles said.

"Piece of cake," Sonic said, grinning.

Tails said nothing, but the look he gave Sally was enough.

It proved to be a maze of rooms of machinery, old tombs and what not, and it was uneventful until--

"Whoa!"

--Sonic and the crew came to a drop off in one dark room that dropped off into complete darkness.

"Good grief!" Sally exclaimed.

"Whoa, we're high up!" exclaimed Amy.

The chao huddled deep in the Cyclone; they have never seen anything that deep.

"What is this place?" Knuckles asked, hearing his voice echo. Whatever it was, it was huge.

Sonic eyes tried to find anything that could help him answer that question, but it was pitch black beyond ten feet. "I can't tell…"

"Hang on," began Tails. "I think the Cyclone has a headlight in this mode…yeah, here it is."

A steady beam of light shimmered from the nose of the walker, and what it revealed was eye-opening.

"Whoa, a rocket-ship!" Dash exclaimed.

"Dude, that's cool!" Tails said.

"This may have been how Eggman got up to the ARK. He's getting taste now…" Sonic said, smiling.

"But how can we use it? I don't know how to fly a space shuttle…" Tails said.

"I think these had preset coordinates, so it'll fly by itself, I imagine," Sally said.

Almost on cue, strong fluorescent lights switched on, causing all to blink. It showed the details of the space shuttle and it also revealed the all too familiar logo of Eggman's face on the side.

"I take it back…" Sonic said dryly.

"How are we supposed to get in there anyway?" Amy asked.

"Well, now that the lights are on…" Sonic scoped the launch pad. "Hey, there's a platform that leads to an elevator. It looks like it heads up to the cockpit. Let's go!"

The crew went along the platform, which ran along the circumference of the wall, and made their way to a large elevator. Several robots were in the area, but only worker robots and they paid the Möbians no mind at all. They merely packed the elevators with supplies.

"Wow, looks like Eggman wants to live up there," Frosty said, seeing all the food storage boxes.

"Here's an empty elevator. Let's take it to the top. All aboard everyone!" Sonic said.

It was a long ride up, for a space shuttle is much bigger then it looks, and they grew cramped in the elevator. Eventually, it reached the top.

"About time," growled Knuckles, whose foot was probably stepped on by everyone besides the Cyclone thankfully.

They crawled into the shuttle and made their way to the passenger bays. Knuckles however made a pit-stop at a cargo bay behind the bay and stored the backpack that contained the Master Emerald shards in the cargo along with the supplies.

"Whoa, we got in at a good time!" Tails said, who had crawled into the cockpit itself. "It says here on a computer screen that launch is at under a minute! Better get buckled in everyone!"

All hastily claimed seats and buckled in, Tails, Frosty and Knuckles in the cockpit. Everyone else was sitting accordingly: Sonic, Dash, Cream and Cheese in the two front seats in the passenger bay; Amy and Sally in the back seats.

Everyone waited as the timer was ticking down.

"I always wanted to see a launch, but I never thought I'd be in one…" Tails said.

"This is so exciting," Frosty said, barely containing his excitement. "I can't wait to float around like those astronauts do on TV…"

Tails saw the top of the room open and the timer reached zero.

-----

Metal-Sonic was picking himself up after reactivating. He was dented in three places heavily and knew that he must be fixed soon. He heard a deep rumble in the base, and knew that a shuttle had been launched. Doubtless the hedgehog and his friends found a way on it.

He must inform the doctor…

But he made his way to the construction bays. Doubtless Robotnik would have him wanting to get back on the ARK regardless of condition, and he knew that he was in no condition to fight the hedgehog, but it wouldn't be long. A flight took several hours, and he could use the teleporter in the control room.

**End of Part 2**


	3. Part 3

**Part 3**

"Whenever you light shines,

I can always find,

Something more of life,

Whenever you break through,

Take me somewhere new,

Deeper into you…"

"Lifelight"--Andy Hunter ©2005

Chapter 11: The Flight

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If the Law of Inertia was never proven before, the poor Möbians aboard the en route space shuttle were experiencing it full force. Everyone was pinned into their seats, and Sonic was sure for a moment that he had left something behind.

Cream couldn't stand the stress and simply fainted. Amy had screamed all she could, but was barely heard over the roar of the engines.

The whole thing seemed like hours, but suddenly, there was a clank and all the sudden, they could breathe again. They lurched forwards as they breathed, and all heard Tails shout breathlessly, "Thrusters have been ejected. The fuel tank is next to go. Hang on!"

There was a few moments of nothing save the roar of the engines, then a very deep clank that shook the shuttle. "The fuel tank's gone!" A pause. "It says we can unbuckle now."

The roar relaxed and everyone else unbuckled. Dash went flying out of Sonic's arms and smacked into the wall in front of him.

"Well, that was kinda weird…" Dash said, rubbing his face.

Sonic swam through the non-gravity to Dash. "Are you all right?"

Dash nodded, and saw everyone else was out and about. Frosty was flipping around from the cockpit and was trying to figure out how to stop spinning. Sally stopped her before Frosty became permanently busy. Knuckles came in and looked crazy due to his dreadlocks floating around.

Amy was trying desperately to keep her hair down but it wasn't working, much to her dismay.

Cream had woken up and had unbuckled. Interestingly enough, she wasn't bothered by the lack of gravity, since she had the ability to fly with her ears and was used to being airborne.

"Boy, I wonder how they play chess during a space mission…" Dash said, a smile taking over his face.

Sonic laughed at the mental picture of a knight and a queen gyrating around like nothing at all.

The whole flight was a good four hours long. All the while, the crew amused themselves with different activities that would've been quite impossible to do back on the planet.

"Look at this! I made a water bubble!" Dash said, watching the water float out of one of the water bottles that the crew brought.

"This is so cool…" Sonic said.

"If it wasn't for the ARK, this would be a pleasant experience," Sally said, watching as Frosty was trying to slurp the water bubble unsuccessfully and was more getting it up her nose then anything else.

Sonic tried it, but just opened his mouth to drink it, but was a bit more disastrous, as it floated all around in his mouth and throat, causing him to sputter and send lots of small water droplets everywhere.

No one knew that water was such a fun tool to play with. Tails and Dash had a bubble between them and blew strongly at it at the same time and in opposite directions, causing the bubble to burst and water droplets fly everywhere.

Everyone had a turn in this fun, when a few hours into the flight, Tails looked out the window and saw the ARK.

"Look!"

Everyone floated towards the window and saw the ARK quite a distance away. "There it is!" Knuckles said.

"Wow, that's a big space station…"

That was the understatement of the year. As the shuttle came closer, they saw that it was very large, almost as big as a small moon. Tails guessed that it was at least 15 miles wide. The spire from which the Eclipse Cannon was hidden was about equal to half the diameter of the ARK.

Some time later, they realized a new danger.

"Hey, what are all those floating around the space station?" Amy asked.

Sonic peered, and suddenly gasped. "Asteroids!"

"What?" Sally shouted, a sudden fright grabbing hold of her.

"We're bound to crash into one of those!" Knuckles said.

Tails dove for the cockpit (which wasn't too hard considering the lack of gravity) and buckled in. Sonic swam in. "What the heck are you doing?"

"I'm hoping to try to get this out of autopilot. If I can get a control of this, I may have a chance!" Tails gripped the steering wheel. "Help me!"

Sonic was unsure which one to push. What if he pressed a self-destruct button or something? He pressed a random button. Nothing. He pressed another. Nothing.

A large asteroid, the size of a small car was careening straight towards them. Tails froze and Sonic saw his short life flash through his eyes.

Suddenly, a computer voice said "Point-defense initiated," and a purple laser beam flashed out of nowhere and destroyed the asteroid.

"Whoa!" Sonic shouted. "I didn't know these shuttles could do that!"

"I didn't either," Tails mumbled, his fear melting away.

The point-defense fired more bolts of energy at more asteroids that the computer "thought" to be a threat to the shuttle. It was like a video game on demo, Sonic later put it as.

As the shuttle neared the ARK, everyone could see the details more. Out of the metal face of the ARK rose different, much smaller spires and several different antennas. Different slots were there for receiving and shipping supplies. All in all, if it wasn't for the actual style of the face, it would be very impressive to look at. Still, they thought they never saw a more amazing technological splendor.

All of the sudden, Knuckles let out a word that turned everyone's heads, and then they understood Knuckles' reaction. There was an asteroid floating nearby that was nearly 20 times as big as the shuttle. The point-defense mechanism was already firing at it, but it looked like that it wasn't doing much good.

"We're gonna crash!" Sonic yelped, and there was a humongous crash!

Everyone expected the top to rip open and they'd be sucked out, but fortune or whatever deity was smiling on them that day; the shuttle's rear was the part that smacked into the ship. Only the cargo decks were breached but they were quickly sealed off.

"Cargo Bays 1, 2 and 5 have been breached, but are being sealed off," Tails said, sighing a breath of relief. "We're safe."

"Bay…5?" Knuckles suddenly looked like something zapped him and he flew to the nearest window. "The Emeralds!"

"What?" Sonic asked.

"I put the Master Emerald shards in there, and now they're gone!" Knuckles pressed against the window.

"Crap!" Sonic felt Knuckles' pain. "That's just bad luck…"

"I need to get out there."

"Wait until we land!" Tails said. "It would just suck if you opened the pressure doors now that were so close."

"I'll lend you the belt when we land," Sonic said. "I'll be much better then finding something else to do it."

"Well…make it snappy…" Knuckles was still unhappy.

They soon entered the former half of the ARK, and all the sudden, everyone fell to the floor.

"Whoa!" Sonic picked himself up, but found that he felt extremely heavy. "What happened?"

"We must've entered the gravity field of the ARK," Tails moaned.

"I feel like I wanna throw up," Dash groaned.

"Don't; please…don't," Amy said, pale and nauseous.

-----

Robotnik was grouchy.

He had just come from monitoring the shuttle and was frustrated that they nearly lost it. That would've been a grievous lost. Also that Rouge and Shadow still haven't found the Emerald, and the delay coming from Metal-Sonic made him uneasy.

Rouge on the other hand had been studying the printouts she stole more and thought about something that could endanger her life.

She would ask Shadow.

She had been wandering through ARK looking for Shadow, and on the way, she ran into a grumpy Robotnik. Since the cause of his attitude was inconsequential to what she was doing, she just plain ignored him.

After some searching, she found Shadow, sitting in a room that looked like at one time was a living quarter. The lone hedgehog was doing what seemed to be the only thing he ever did. He stood stock still, staring into nothing, and always had his back to anyone who would talk to him or was with him.

Rouge was about to open her mouth, when Shadow suddenly growled deeply, "What are you doing here?"

Rouge paused a second. "Well, I was exploring the ARK and I found you here, that's all."

Shadow made no noise for a long time. Finally, he said "Leave. You've seen enough."

Rouge felt it to obey, for despite Shadow's masked look, he was angry, and she knew better then to interfere now. She'd find a much better opportunity within the time.

She was well down the hall when something on her belt beeped. It was the Chaos-energy tracker. Surprised and excited, she took it out and hooked onto the energy source. It was located on an asteroid outside the ARK, in an asteroid. The only thing was that it didn't have the same signature as the Chaos Emeralds did, and if she didn't throw her mark amiss…

"Ah, looks like the jewels are coming to me now…"

She took off down the hall, eager to find anything to get that jewel.

Chapter 12: The ARK

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5:27 PM

3 hours, 3 minutes till fire

The shuttle had been admitted into an airlock, docked and the passengers were already out and about, suffering from a little anti-gravity shock. Sonic felt like someone added about 30 pounds to his head, and felt sluggish. Everyone else felt pretty much the same.

"Well, that was good…" Tails said, who was feeling dizzy and leaning against the Cyclone.

Dash and Frosty were hugging the floor, feeling like the world was tilting.

"Well, I'm going out to find the Master Emerald."

"Gotcha, Knux," Sonic said, unbuckling his belt. "Here you go."

Knuckles took the belt and clasped it around his waist. "You'd better find the cannon and get it destroyed. I'll catch up to you as soon as I can.

Knuckles ran down a hall, an Echidna on a mission.

"Well, you heard him. We only have three hours until the next fire," Tails said, straightening up, although he still felt like someone shoved a bowling ball into his head.

Tails led the precession, Sonic was at the end. Everyone else was in between.

"This place looks old and dusty too…" Amy said, quietly.

"This place is over sixty years old, and it was empty for fifty of them." Tails looked something up on the onboard computer. "ARK was the first Bernoulli sphere space station built by the Overlanders. It was self-sufficient and had a gravity field outside of the station itself. The gravity's strong enough to hold an artificial atmosphere mixed with nitrogen and oxygen, just like the atmosphere of Möbius."

"Breathable air outside of the ARK?" Sally inquired.

"That what this says," Tails replied. "It was the latest piece of technology of that time, but looking at it now…"

"It's an abandoned ARK, now…" Amy finished.

"You couldn't have said it any better, Ames," Sonic said from behind.

"Ah, here's a terminal. Now I can get a map of the ARK," Tails plugged wires in from the Cyclone into the terminal. "It'll be a few seconds…"

Everyone else busied themselves for the wait. Amy and Cream were talking in low whispers. Sally was making sure that her laser pistol was fully charged. Cheese and Frosty were trying to play Rock, Scissors, Paper. Dash was just plain looking around.

Normally no one would've cared, but it was the way Dash was looking around that alerted Sonic. It wasn't the look of curiosity, but alerted fear, as if he had heard an enemy but couldn't see him.

"Dash, what's wrong?" Sonic asked.

"I dunno. Can you feel it?"

Sonic waited a second. "Heck, no. All I can feel is that it feels colder then back near the shuttle."

"That's it. It's cold, but not cold as in hot-cold, but…bad. Very bad."

Sonic lifted his head and waited, trying to sense what Dash was feeling. "You know, yeah. It feels like my blood's gonna chill from something. What's up with this?"

"There," Tails announced. "Got the map. Now we can get out battle strategy going…"

Everyone gathered around the Cyclone and listened to what Tails gathered.

"The weapon itself has strong defenses in about five different spots. It's not necessary that we destroy them, but if Eggman's expecting us, it'll distract him long enough for Sonic to get into the control room, use this Emerald and get the rest out when the controls shut down." Tails opened the box where he kept his ingenious fake and handed it to Sonic.

"Is that a Chaos Emerald?" Amy asked.

"It looks like it, doesn't it? It's actually a fake one Knuckles helped me make. It had the same wave-lengths and properties as the real one, but if it absorbs too much energy--as it will when in the control room--it'll overload and blow up. The Chaos energy discharge should damage whatever the computers and machines around, so Sonic, I suggest getting behind a wall to protect yourself. You never know what'll happen if a Chaos Emerald explodes."

Sonic fondled the Emerald. "Piece of cake. Gotta run! Let's go, Dash."

Sonic picked up the chao and took off down the dark hallways.

"This'll be too dangerous for the rest of us. We'll stay in one of these quarters until you get back." Sally ushered Cream and Cheese into a nearby room, which had several windows on the wall and on the floor, so you could see the planet all the time.

Amy however wasn't so resilient to obey. "Aw, c'mon! Why should they leave me behind and have all the fun?"

Sally crossed her arms. "Because you are simply not experienced. Tails has much more and can take care of himself."

Tails jumped inside. He usually never did a mission by himself and was never acknowledged to do something like that on his own, but Sally had faith in him.

"I can take care of myself!" Amy argued.

"Amy, if I hear one more argument from you, you are going to get it. Get in the room," Sally said, clenching his fists.

Amy pouted, but complied. She sulkingly tromped into the other room.

"Thank you, Sally. I'll try my best," Tails said.

"Better get going, and be careful…"

Tails smiled and drove his mech down the hall, wondering why it was so cold…

-----

Robotnik was studying even more documents about the ARK when something rapped on the door. "Enter."

The door opened and in stepped Metal-Sonic. The human knew that something was wrong, despite the lack of wear and tear on Mecha's metal surface.

"Doctor, the hedgehog and his friends are here. They escaped me back on the base…"

Robotnik made a sound as if he was not surprised. "Thank you, Mecha. I have a feeling that it was for the better. Who was with Sonic?"

Mecha listed off the names of the Möbians, and when he said Amy's and Sally's, Eggman smiled unpleasantly.

"Ah, they're here….This makes things even more perfect for my plan. Mecha, scan that circle in the middle of this room. What is it?"

Metal-Sonic scanned the lonely and seemingly inconspicuous circle in the middle of the room. "It's an escape pod module. It ships out Plexiglas-strengthened pods towards the planet. I should not need to tell you for what reason…"

"No…" Robotnik was fingering his moustache. "Mecha, come with me." Robotnik climbed into the Eggwalker he had always conveniently nearby. "We have some work to do…"

-----

Sonic and Dash were looking at a map console which was constantly active in the ARK. The console displayed a 3D hologram of the ARK.

"It appears the control room is right here," Sonic said, his finger piercing through the hologram towards the center of the ARK. "Looks official enough."

"Yeah," Dash looked behind Sonic's shoulder, as if expecting something.

"Will you cut that out? You act like Shadow himself will jump out of the halls…"

"I can't help feeling that we're not alone! There's something evil here…I can't explain it!"

"Well, it's freaking me out. So try to chill out, okay?"

Dash looked over the hedgehog's shoulder a thousandth time. "I'll try…"

They walked through a dozen more halls until they came to a place where there was a great pit that sank into darkness. Sonic took a look down, and he felt a rush of cold down his back. Funny, he was never afraid of heights, but why all the sudden did he not like this particular height?

Dash noticed Sonic's tense posture. "You feel it too, do you?"

"I think so…let's double back. I think we made a wrong turn…"

As Sonic turned again and walked back down the hall, he began to wonder if Tails and Frosty were feeling the same thing.

-----

"I hate this place," Frosty said, peering out of the Cyclone. "All the lights may be on, but it feels so dark!"

"You're just nervous because were deep in Eggman's territory," Tails said, half gulping. He too began to feel unnaturally cold, as if the blood in his back had turned into ice.

Tails had shot down every camera he laid his eyes on. He kept telling himself that he was just a bit nervous about being on his own, but he had been in Eggman's bases a dozen times over, but why did he feel this way?

He too came to a place where the drop seemingly went into eternity, and the same wave of coldness swept over him and Frosty, and it felt like the Cyclone faltered too.

-----

"Should we detain them or not?" Shadow said, who had observed Sonic and his chao advancing down the halls. He was talking to Eggman through the communicator.

"I don't think it'll be necessary," Robotnik sounded unusually calm. "Metal-Sonic and I are about to detain his companions. Do whatever you care to. I don't have need of you now."

-----

Knuckles, glowing different colors and zipping to different asteroids, had a much easier time then anyone inside. He was not inside the ARK and didn't have any "emotional" trouble as everyone else had been feeling. All he was concentrated on was finding the precious bag that contained most of the Master Emerald.

Despite his current invincibility, energized by Sonic's borrowed Super Emerald belt, he felt tired from zipping back and forth the great distances from one asteroid to another. They seemed close enough, but some were almost a mile away.

The glare from the sun's reflection off the ARK's metal surface hurt his eyes too. Thankfully, the sun would sink behind the blue planet below soon now.

A signal. He heard a faint but shrill sound of Chaos energy. It's got to be the Master Emerald shards.

He zipped to three different asteroids until finding his pack filled with the Master Emerald shards, caught in the rough rocks on the asteroid. Finally…

He snatched up the backpack and zoomed towards the towers where an entrance was.

He found one nestled pretty far away from the center, and had to wait a bit until some doors opened to let out junk. Just like Eggman, always the anti-environmentalist.

He snuck in and when he decided it was safe, he decharged the emerald belt. Being Hyper for a long period of time did have its toll: he felt heavier and had to lean against something until his strength returned.

After a good fifteen minutes, he got up and ventured farther into the ARK. Not too deep in, he began to feel like something was with him, watching him. He also felt like something was pressing on him, as if he was in a high-pressure environment. He first thought it was a problem with the mechanics of the ARK, but as he ventured deeper into the ARK, he began to change his mind.

He came to a place where several support beams were exposed and extended up to about 40 feet high, and something came along that he felt later he should've expected.

"Hey, big guy?"

Knuckles looked up to see something white and pink hanging from a support beam. Upon closer examination, Knuckles could see it was a bat.

Rouge.

Rouge did a flip in the air and landed on the ground about fifteen feet in front of Knuckles. "Long time, no see, treasure hunter…"

Knuckles was instantly on guard. "Get out of my way…"

"Hmm, aren't you the tough one… Aren't you after the Chaos Emeralds too?"

"If I was, I wouldn't tell you in the world…"

Knuckles head was clearing. There was another resonance ring, and it was very close. It only took the Echidna a few seconds to find the location.

"So YOU have the last of the Master Emerald…"

"The what?" Rouge asked, as if not knowing anything. "Oh, you mean your lovely Emerald."

Knuckles was fed up. "Give them up and I won't hurt you." The impulse for saying "much" afterwards was almost too much for Knuckles to resist, but Rouge spoke next.

"You'd hurt me? Shame on you!"

"Watch me…" Knuckles growled.

Knuckles lashed out a steel-reinforced fist. Rouge flipped back and counterattacked with her steel-edged boots. There was a metal ring as metal met metal as Knuckles and Rouge struck at each other; Knuckles with his punches, and Rouge with her kicks.

The fight came close to one of the vertical beams, and when Knuckles struck at one of Rouge's legs, the bat did the unexpected. She flipped upwards, and grasped the bar. She began climbing up with great speed. Knuckles cursed as his fists struck the bar, but shook it off as he climbed up after her.

"I must admit, you are full of surprises…" Rouge said when she had reached a horizontal bar.

"You haven't seen anything yet," Knuckles swung up onto the same bar, but just as his feet met the metal, Rouge stretched out her wings and flew over. Knuckles jumped into space after her and glided across.

Rouge however was not impressed. Just as Knuckles reached the bar, Rouge spun about like a whirlwind and dealt Knuckles a blow to the chin which downed him. Luckily, he had enough sense to grab the bar and pull himself up.

Knuckles was now raging. He didn't really want to hurt Rouge, her being a woman, but that blow changed his mind. He began to throw punches that could nearly break the jaw.

Rouge dodged as many as she could, but one connected on her arm which made her cry out in pain. Knuckles rolled back, feeling remorse as well as satisfied.

"I didn't want to hurt you, but you made me…" Knuckles said through his teeth.

"Made you?" Rouge was equally as furious. "Have you no sense of courtesy at all?"

"If I didn't, you'd be a bloody mass down below by now."

"I stole these Emeralds fair and square!" Rouge fluttered up to climb another beam. Knuckles was hot on her tail.

Rouge reached the top, and flew across again. Knuckles followed in suit, but angled it so he wouldn't land so close to Rouge, for the bruise forming on his chin was too much of a reminder.

The battle resumed furiously, as much as two lions fighting for territorial rights. The blows came so fast and furious that it seemed impossible for either to not receive very serious wounds. They did receive some battle wounds, but not as serious as one could expect in witnessing such a brawl. Knuckles got a chop to the knee, which started bleeding some, and Rouge's ankle was hit by Knuckles' chops to the feet.

After a good ten minutes of straight fighting, the two had parted as space and stood to catch their breaths. Knuckles was trying to stop the bleeding with an old piece of cloth that he kept handy in a side pocket in case of an emergency dealing with serious cuts or snakebite. Rouge was massaging her ankle, which was turning into an off-blue.

The two panted nearly in unison, but despite their fatigue and battle wounds, neither had given up their spirit.

"Stop playing around, and give back my Emeralds…" Knuckles growled first.

"You call yourself a hunter, and you attack a lady? Shame on you!" Rouge had stood up.

Knuckles stood up tall, ignoring the soreness in the knee, ready for whatever Rouge had to give. "What kind of lady steals other people's jewels anyway? I need this Master Emerald for my Island, and you wanted it for bucks!"

"That jewel is mine!" Rouge stepped forward to fight again, but her ankle wasn't as sturdy with her injury, and it buckled. Rouge cried out in surprise as it collapsed under her, and she began to plummet to the hard floor below.

Knuckles dived forward, half-gliding and grasped Rouge's foot, which was just in reach.

Rouge grunted from the sudden stop, and realized what had happened. She was saved from a very nasty fall by Knuckles, who was pulling her up gently.

Knuckles grasped Rouge's hand to help her stand up. The two looked at each other for a split second when Rouge's realized the Echidna was holding her hand. Rouge recoiled as if she touched something hot, but was astonished at the same time.

"Take your hand off of me!" Rouge cried out.

Knuckles stood tall. "Well, is that the way to treat someone who just saved you from a fall like that?" He motioned to the floor below.

"Saved me?" The bat said, but allowed a smile to control her face. "Don't think I owe you one. You just wanted to hold my hand, didn't you? You're such a creep…" Rouge blinked her jade eyes at Knuckles affectionately.

Knuckles was in no mood. "This isn't a joke! Think of it whatever, but I was saving the Emeralds you have."

Rouge glanced at Knuckles disbelieving. There was more to that, she knew as well as Knuckles. Rouge sighed, "No matter what you say, this sound's crazy, but…"

Knuckles saw the bat withdraw two large Emerald shards from her belt and toss them at his feet. Knuckles' eyes widened in disbelief. "Huh?"

"Just take them. They stink like Echidnas do…"

Knuckles mumbled, but couldn't help smiling as he scooped up the shards. "If that's what you thought, you should've given them up a long time ago." Knuckles stood up and stuffed the last shards into his backpack, and barely breathed the word "finally."

He turned to leave, but noticed Rouge rubbing her sore ankle. She noticed his glance and straightened up. "What?" Rouge said.

Knuckles growled deeply, as the still inner voice in his heart told him what to do to her. "I'm…sorry…that I hurt you…"

Knuckles took off, blushing. Rouge watched him glide to the floor and run off into the shadows. Rouge felt something grow inside her heart as she turned to leave. She was beginning to like Knuckles…

A lot.

Chapter 13: A Hitch in the Plan

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6:57 PM

1 hour and 33 minutes to next fire

Tails and Frosty in the Cyclone had advanced far into the ARK, and the dread and fear that was haunting them had grown nearly ten fold. Tails was jumping at the slightest sound that did not come from the Cyclone. Frosty had stopped talking a while before and took to hiding in the bottommost part of the cockpit.

Tails' felt like he was carrying a rack of ice cubes on his back, and was always looking behind himself. But nothing had happened to confirm his fears so he was puzzled underneath the fear that was threatening to devour him.

Shadow watched the fox as he drove the Cyclone down the halls. He couldn't figure out what the fox was so afraid of. He had stalked the fox for quite some time, trying to find out if he had the last Chaos Emerald, but neither the chao nor the fox had spoken for the past ten minutes.

Shadow eventually gave up on them, for their fear had given their senses a power boost, and Shadow knew that his presence would not go long unnoticed, so he gave back. He also left the Emerald he had back in the control room, so Chaos Controlling was out of the question.

Tails never knew that Shadow had been stalking him, therefore hadn't noticed him give back.

Tails was distracted from the com clicking on. Tails was thankful to have something momentarily distract him, for he felt like that a black mist would soon appear and envelop him in darkness.

"Yeah?"

"Kid? It's Sonic. I'm outside the control room…"

"Good, this is what you should do…"

-----

"Why did they have to leave us behind?" Amy whined, again.

"I told you a thousand times before--" Sally answered.

"I know, I know, we don't have enough experience, but how can we get experience if we can't get out there?" Amy complained.

Both were in a heat of argument and didn't notice an enemy presence. Cream and Cheese were too occupied with looking out the window and trying to calm down; the fear was taking her heart as well.

"Well, well, well, is there something that we can help you with?" growled a very familiar voice.

All jumped to see Dr. Robotnik in his mech standing in the doorway, brandishing a monstrous weapon, with an appropriately sized eyescope.

"Dr. Eggman!" Amy squealed in fear.

Sally had already brandished her laser pistol and pointed it at Eggman (although in the back of her mind she knew that it would mean little against a gun of that size let alone the walker).

"If you think that will stop me, Princess Acorn, you are gravely mistaken."

Out of the shadows beside the mech, Metal-Sonic flashed in, snatched the pistol from Sally (knocking her down at the same time) and crushed it in his steel grip. Metal-Sonic stood tall, claws flexed ready to slice at anyone who would try to hinder him.

"As you see, you are now weaponless," Robotnik began, a cruel smile contorting his features. "If you value your life, you will tell me where Sonic and Tails are, now…"

Sally had a quick glance around the room, and found that they were trapped. They had no choice, really. "On the way to the center of the ARK."

"Obviously to the Eclipse Cannon," Metal-Sonic added. "No doubt the fox discovered the protected energy cells around the shaft of the Cannon and is out to damage them."

"But they won't…Mecha, take them to the science lab, room 201. I have some tapping to do…" Robotnik said, just as Mecha began leading them to the science bay, Robotnik in the rear, still brandishing the gun.

-----

"Here's the control room…" Sonic said, peering in, Dash following suit.

"And there's the Emeralds!" Dash said, pointing to six points of light above the computer screens. "Let's go…"

"Gotta call Tails first." Sonic punched a few buttons on his wrist communicator. Tails replied first. "Yeah?" He sounded breathless.

"Kid, it's Sonic. I'm outside the control room." Sonic stalked into the room, casting a glance down into the darkness below, but headed straight towards the six Emeralds.

"Good, this is what you should do: Put that fake Emeralds into the..." Tails words faded into static.

"Tails?...Tails?" Sonic tapped on the communicator. "You still with me?"

There was more static, then the signal came back, but a different voice erupted. "Tell Sonic this, Tails. You and Sonic best move over to the Science Bay, room 201 and bring the Emerald. Otherwise, I'll send your precious girls into the vacuum of space! Mwah ha ha…"

Sonic scowled at the communicator on his wrist, and Tails' voice came back. "Did you hear that, Sonic? Eggman got Sally, Amy and Cream!"

"I heard," Sonic was glancing at the Emerald in his hand, the control panel and back at his communicator. "We can't talk anymore on this frequency. I'll meet you at the Science Bay. Be brave, Tails…"

Sonic signed off. "Well, that's a hitch in the plan…unless…" Sonic looked at the Emerald again, a grin widening on his face.

"What?" Dash said impatiently.

"If I give Eggman this Emerald, it'd be just like me putting the fake Emerald in myself. It would also hurt him more by making such a stupid mistake. Looks like we're off to the Science Bay."

"That's quite a ways back."

"Yep. Took us nearly a half hour to get there, it should be about the same back. Let's go. I can't stand another minute with Sally in trouble with Eggman."

Sonic zoomed out the door.

-----

Shadow stepped into a room and froze, and his eyes suddenly turned cold steel. Rouge happened to be in the same room and was looking at more of the computer files, and a quick glance told Shadow what was the contents.

"What is that?" Shadow said, his teeth clenched.

Rouge spun around, taken by surprise, but regained her composure. "Just a little research, dear…"

"You are studying the Professor's research! You have no right to look at that!"

Rouge pretended to yawn. "Why? Afraid of something I'll find?"

Shadow shoved Rouge aside, closed the files, turned off the computer and unplugged it. He also gave the console a sharp kick, popping it open. He activated one hoverskate and torched the inside of the console so it wouldn't work anymore. He wasn't worried about losing any data, for this wasn't the main computer.

"I should kill you for this…"

"Why? Just because a girl wanted to check up on a boy?"

Shadow was about to advance to give Rouge something to think about, but what Rouge had stopped him. "And imagine what I found out. You can't be the ultimate lifeform…"

Shadow stopped in his tracks, but didn't stop his glare. "I was created by Professor Gerald under Project Shadow, the project for the ultimate lifeform, may I remind you, so I am."

"Are you…" Rouge blinked. "…so certain?"

Something was wrong. Rouge was entirely convinced that Shadow was either lying or mistaken about claiming to be the ultimate lifeform. Shadow, who had always called himself the ultimate lifeform, began to wonder. He never asked the Professor why he was on the ARK, and the only clues he had was the Chaos training he had after maturity, and that the ultimate lifeform on the documents had much exposure to Chaos Emeralds.

Shadow shook himself, then said with a fierce glare. "Quite." Shadow marched to the window and took his usual position of staring into nothing.

Rouge knew she touched a nerve, and she thought later to exploit this discovery of Shadow's emotional weakness.

-----

7:40 PM

50 minutes to next fire

Tails had marched the Cyclone into the bay, half-expecting something of the worst evil to come out of the dark rooms and attack them. This fear was getting out of control! He tried to suppress it, but he couldn't help feeling this way. This was evil. At first, it seemed like his imagination. A little while later, a mirage of reality. Now, it was as real as the steps coming from the Cyclone.

He was trying to find the room number, but kept getting distracted by the dead stillness of the ARK. He figured that the ARK would be silent as a tomb, but this was unnaturally quiet; the kind that happens moments before a killer tornado sweeps through a vicinity.

He wasn't expecting a tornado, of course, but his mind was coming up with many byproducts of his past experiences with Sonic that could explain the quiet, but whatever it was, it felt like the embodiment of evil.

He found room 201 and opened the doors. Yep, there was Eggman, standing (or rather sitting in his mech) at the opposite end of the room, gun resting towards the group of girls, his face directly towards the door, eagerly waiting for anyone to step in.

Tails maneuvered the Cyclone in and also saw Metal-Sonic, cross-armed and perfectly still, like a predator waiting for its prey. Cream was clutching Cheese and was on her knees on the floor. Amy was similar, but Tails could swear that she had been crying of fright. Sally was standing, but the expression was what struck Tails: a look of rebellion, but worry.

"Good evening, Tails…" Robotnik said coldly. "If you'll climb out of your mech and join your friends, I'll be much easier to deal with me."

Tails felt like resisting, but had an idea. He found Frosty, who hadn't moved from her hiding place but had heard everything that was going on, and whispered to her as he was unbuckling. Frosty understood, and stayed hidden.

Tails climbed out and stalked towards the girls, Metal-Sonic's eyes following him with cold hatred all the way. Tails sat down, afraid to say anything.

It was another ten minutes before the doors slid open again, and there revealed the blue hedgehog; one hand holding the Emerald, and the other holding Dash. He slowly stepped into the room. "Sorry I'm late, doc. I forgot the left turn at Albuquerque."

Robotnik didn't appreciate the joke, and went straight to the meat of this meeting. "If you want to see your friends again, put the Emerald on that circle on the floor, now!"

Sonic couldn't help but grin, side-eyeing Metal-Sonic on the side, who hadn't moved, put down Dash nearby the Cyclone and stepped forward. "My, you've turned into quite the big-time villain, Eggman. Did you study?"

"Enough! Put the Emerald down and back off…"

Sonic advanced slowly, eyes never leaving Metal-Sonic, thinking the robot a trap to rip open his back when he put the Emerald down.

Sonic stepped fully into the circle, and the unthinkable happened. Robotnik pressed a button and down slid a cylinder of Plexiglas that surrounded him. "Hey!" Sonic cried out in surprise. "What's this about?"

Robotnik leaned back, relaxing. "I think it's quite obvious. It's a trap!" Robotnik laughed.

"You idiot! I still have the Emerald in here, or haven't you noticed yet?"

"Oh please, did you honestly think that you could fool me with that fake?" Robotnik sat back further.

Tails perked up, alarmed. How did he guess? Knuckles wasn't even able to distinguish the difference. "How did you guess it was the fake?" Tails asked.

"Tails!" Sonic shouted, his voice altered from the glass' thickness.

Robotnik smiled triumphantly. "Well, because you just told me…"

Tails felt like he turned into salt. He blew the whole plan, and now Sonic was stuck inside that tube.

"And now, for the fun…" Robotnik said. "Sonic, you are about to get launched into space in an escape pod, but I messed with it and now it's armed. Once it clears the area of the colony, BAM! And so ends the life of Sonic the Hedgehog."

This got mixed reactions, but generally the same. Dash's suddenly teared up. Frosty was still hidden, and couldn't believe what was happening. If only she could get the Emerald inside the engine compartment, and she could break Sonic out.

Amy was crying again in fear of Sonic's life. Sally's expression turned into a mixture of fear, sadness and disbelief. Tails had his ears flattened and was about to break down. Cream had her hands grasped over her mouth. This was too much for her…

Sonic was pressed against the glass, suddenly dizzy. He knew that he couldn't break out this way, and couldn't see anyway out. Now he was going to die…but what was going to happen now? He looked at Tails.

"Tails, I'm counting on you now…finish the mission. Take care of Dash for me."

Tails gulped the growing lump in his throat.

"Amy, take care of yourself, okay?"

Amy's eyes were rimmed with red and wanted to hug Sonic…one last time.

"Sally? Take care of Cream like you always have before; and…I love you…"

Sally let a tear run unchecked down her face.

Sonic leaned against the glass. "That's all…"

"And it was quite touching, to be sure," Robotnik mocked. "Goodbye, Sonic…"

"Please, don't do it, doctor…" Amy begged, just as the pod jettisoned into space.

Sonic saw the black sky of space surround him, and at the beautiful planet below, one he grew to love and would now by all appearances never see it again.

He thought about all on the ARK. How would they do now that he was gone? He couldn't think of anything in the few moments as he was up there, but as the pod flew further away, he began to think of much more things he wanted to say, but now it was too late. This takes a moment to say, but in reality was flashing through his mind in a second.

Then it dawned on him! That feeling that was growing on him on the ARK was gone! The fear was gone and his nature had returned full force. There must be a way out. His eyes flew around, looking for anything, like steer the pod back, disarm the bomb, anything. His probing eyes found the fake Chaos Emerald on the floor, forgotten and neglected.

He then remembered from a great way off what Tails and Knuckles were talking about it. They said that it operated on the same properties as the real Emerald. His mind flashed to the time he saw Shadow teleport with a Chaos Emerald. Could he…do it?

He picked up the Emerald and was hurriedly thinking about how to teleport; the pod would blow at anytime. His mind was furiously working, and something clicked, and in the Emerald, he saw a picture of Knuckles, running through a dark passageway. That stuck, and he shouted what Shadow said as he teleported.

"Chaos…Contro--!"

Then the pod erupted into a ball of flame.

-----

7:44 PM

45 minutes, 32 seconds to fire

Back on the ARK, all watched as the small speck that was the pod carrying Sonic to his doom flew further and further away. All watched.

Seconds past, and Sonic was still alive. Maybe Knuckles had found him or something, he was still outside. Two minutes past, nothing yet.

Three minutes and twenty-three seconds, all witnessed what looked like the most horrific image of their lives: a brief red glow, followed by an immense explosion. It was soundless due to the vacuum of space, but everyone seemed to hear it. Amy screamed Sonic's name once more and dropped onto her knees, crying hysterically.

Mecha turned away from the scene, feeling nothing, except a slight twinge of regret that he himself didn't finish off the hedgehog.

Dash was crying into the Cyclone's leg; he would never see Sonic…again. Sally was trying to comfort Cream, who was in shock, but couldn't stop the tears herself.

Robotnik was the only one who looked smug. "And so passes a worthy opponent…now, back to business. If you tell me where the last Chaos Emerald is, I will spare your lives."

Tails looked up, his eyes rimmed with red. A friend that he was with for years was snuffed out, just like that. Oh, Sonic….Tails wiped the excess tears from his eyes, and happened to see Eggman glare at them.

In the flip of a coin, Tails' sorrow begat a rage only matched by the devil. He was still tearing, but now these were angry tears. Eggman would pay every drop of Sonic's blood with a gallon of his own.

Tails dashed past the Eggwalker and Metal-Sonic so fast that neither knew what had happened. Mecha recovered first, and saw Tails climb into the Cyclone. The robot flew towards the fox, claws ready to taste blood, but there was one thing he didn't count on.

Dash.

Dash the chao was just as furious as Tails, if not more so, and when he saw Mecha make a dive at Tails' unprotected back, he combined his wrath and sorrow into a Sonic-reminiscent flip and flew right into Mecha's intake, jamming it.

Mecha went down as if he was shot, for in a way, he was. A chao was jammed into his intake. While so, he couldn't move swiftly at all. It hampered his systems for the intake also acted as a ventilation system. Mecha, cursing, was too busy trying to rip the chao out of his intake, and in that time, Tails had turned the Cyclone, straight towards Eggman.

"Eggman! You will feel what Sonic just felt!" Tails activated a button, just as Eggman turned his head, and a little later his walker, to the fox. A large laser lens appeared at the nose of the Cyclone. "Charge…fire Power Laser!"

Tails had installed a laser system in his walker, after studying the Egg Cannon on the Egg Carrier two years before, and he now found a good use for it. There was a kindle of blue, then a large laser, several feet wide torched the air and slammed the Eggwalker into the wall behind it. Tails' expression was haunting as the glow from the laser blast illuminated his anger-twisted face.

Tails let the laser burn until the heat gauge screamed a warning that heat levels were nearing critical. The laser deactivated, and it revealed an unconscious Eggman, and a smoldering pile of metal. The Eggwalker would never walk again.

Tails thought Eggman was dead at first, and was inclined to be glad, but Tails jumped out and inspected Eggman, and found a pulse and steady breathing. He felt sorry for not killing him, then realized something. If he did kill him, he would be no better then Eggman.

He looked up to see Sally, Amy and Cream with a look of shock on their faces. Sally knew that Tails' reaction was understandable, but justifiable or no, that was a job for the courts to decide his punishment, despite her thirst to end Eggman too.

"He's still alive," Tails said, sighing heavily. "I'm a bit surprised though."

"The armor of the mech must've protected him while it fell backwards, before being torched itself. It's all right, Tails. You proved a better one tem most. A lesser man would've put the final blow to him."

"Oh no!"

All spun around, reacting to Amy's outcry, and saw Metal-Sonic, who had succeeded to get rid of Dash (who was a distance away, bleeding some but triumphant) from his intake, lift his clawed hand out, and was clutching the last Emerald, inside the walker's engine compartment. "Fools!"

Metal-Sonic flashed out the door and down the hall.

"Hurry! We got to go after him!" Tails said, dashing for the Cyclone, and swung up into it. "He's got the last Emerald!"

-----

8:10 PM

19 minutes, 41 seconds

Knuckles was lost.

He had taken a wrong turn and ended up in a maze full of docking rooms and airlocks. He sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall and tended to his cuts received from Rouge from almost an hour before. They had partially closed already, but still smarted.

He wondered in the back of his mind if Sonic and Tails were able to finish the mission. They were resourceful, and figured that he really shouldn't hurry.

He was in this train of thought, when he heard a high-pitched ring for a second, but it stopped. Knuckles naturally looked around a bit, then forgot about it, but then, it felt like the wind was rising.

"What in the world?"

Knuckles stood up and followed the direction of the wind, which was gradually becoming stronger. A few rooms down, the wind was spiraling in a vortex. Knuckles was fascinated by this phenomenon; then it began to grow brighter in the room. Yellowish light flowed through and banished every shadow within eyesight. Suddenly, there was a terrible flash with a whoosh of sound!

Knuckles jumped back and shielded his eyes, expecting something to attack, but the light winked out as if never was. The Echidna lowered his hands, and let his eyes adjust to the semi-darkness once again.

A few moments later, he saw that there was a shape lying on the ground, apparently unconscious. Upon further review, he found out who it was.

"Sonic?"

It was. Sonic was lying face down on the cold floor, stretched out, his right hand clasping the Emerald as if it was vital to life (for if you remember, it was).

It took Knuckles a good minute to try to wake up Sonic. He had some minor burns on his arms and he smelled like he was on fire for a split-second. Finally, Sonic stirred. "C'mon, get up, man. You conked out or something."

Sonic pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. "Knuckles?"

"Sure, Sonic, what happened?"

Sonic tried to stand up, but was unable until Knuckles braced him. Sonic held his head as if it was about to explode. "I…I didn't think I was going to pull it off." Knuckles held up Sonic, trying to keep his head up. The latter began to feel his head getting relieved from the pressure inside. "Somehow, with this…" Sonic held up the fake Emerald weakly. "…I was able to use the Chaos Control."

"The Chaos Control? You mean the teleport that Shadow can do?"

"Yeah, but it sure drained the life-force out of me. I must've done it right when the pod exploded."

"What?"

"I'll explain later." Sonic managed to stand on his own, but not without difficulty and his knees unsteady. "Hey, do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Boy, you must be out of it. You have a time on your communicator if I remember right…"

Sonic automatically lifted his right wrist to his eyes, and had a hard time seeing at first, for his eyes were still a bit blurry, but when he finally did, his eyes grew large, and he felt a rush of adrenaline.

"Dude! We don't even have twenty minutes! I can't get to the control room, even at the speed of sound!"

"You didn't get the mission done yet?" Knuckles said, suddenly taking in the situation.

"No! Eggman kidnapped the girls so I had to double back. I don't have time to explain. What am I gonna do?"

"Is there a way to destroy the Eclipse Cannon without going into the control room?"

"I dunno, let me think," Sonic said, putting his hand to his head in thought.

"We really don't have the time, Sonic. Make it snappy."

"You're as helpful as a virus to a computer." Sonic snapped his fingers. "Hey, what if I ran up the nose of the Cannon and slam dunked the Emerald in there. It's not a real one, so if it hits the energy inside, it'll explode, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, but who knows what disastrous effects it would cause. It could blow the ARK out of orbit."

"Better that then another potshot to the planet! Want to argue while Möbius becomes a chunky donut?"

Knuckles shook his head, and made motions about his waist, and in his hands appeared the Super Emerald belt. "You may need this."

"Yeah, but I doubt it. Hey, I could fly right up to the nose and slam dunk it in there!"

"Too many asteroids. It's more rock then space about a mile above the face of the ARK. Do you see any spacesuits around here?"

"Why?"

"You're not thinking about stepping out into the vacuum of space, Sonic…"

"That's the thing: the ARK has the outside as well as the inside pressurized and has breathable air."

"What? How do you know?"

"Talk to Tails. He got the schematics about the ARK onto the Cyclone's computer. Now, I gotta juice. Find the guys. Eggman's got to be making them suffer if I'm right."

Sonic waved a goodbye and took off for the nearest airlock. Knuckles looked after him for a second, and took off down another hall himself. Time was ticking, and the margin for error was slight. Sonic knew that he only had one shot and he better make it a good one.

This was it: the final rush…

Chapter 14: The Final Rush

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"I guess he was just a regular hedgehog after all."

Shadow had been a few doors down in the science bay, and had watched the pod fly out of the "atmosphere" of the ARK. He watched unemotionally as it vanished in fire. He didn't like Sonic much at all, but he was a worthy rival.

His com crackled to life and he opened the channel. "Shadow, here."

"Shadow. Metal-Sonic has snatched the last Emerald. My walker has been reduced to scrap and I was knocked out, but Mecha took off when I was down, with the last Emerald, but there is another problem. Scans from the ARK's database indicate a center of Chaos Energy quickly heading towards the Cannon spire. It must be the Echidna, Knuckles. Cut him off before the cannon fires!"

"Yes, doctor." He deactivated the com, and looked around. He noticed that Rouge was gone. Slightly alarmed and not surprised at the same time, he took off down the door, knowing precisely she'd go.

-----

8:18 PM

11 minutes, 10 seconds till next fire

Sonic had found an airlock that led to the outside of the ARK. It was cold, dark, gloomy and the surface which looked clean from a distance, was coated with space dust. That was a little better, thought Sonic. It'd give more traction for his feet.

He could see the nose of the Eclipse Cannon far away. It looked like a mountain from his point of view, but it also looked like a spear, aimed towards the planet. Now that was an experience. Straight above him was the planet he lived on, and it felt very awkward. He had a similar experience a few years before when he first arrived on Little Planet, where he first met Metal-Sonic and Amy.

No time for nostalgia, Sonic. There's about 10 minutes to firing, and you're thinking about Little Planet. Gotta go, hedgehog.

Despite the artificial gravity that was equivalent to Möbius' natural gravity constant, it was altered on the face of the ARK. Sonic was actually lighter by about 10 lbs, and his bounds were about 10 longer, meaning he could gain better speed. He found this out by experiencing it personally.

Finally, something on his side. He was quicker then ever. He made for the cannon at a fast run, thinking slightly on what would happen if he didn't stop soon enough when he got to the cannon. A classic Looney-Toons gag came to mind.

-----

Shadow was able to beat Metal-Sonic to the control room.

(Metal-Sonic was actually amusing himself by leading the Möbians on a wild goose chase around the ARK, knowing that he could perfectly well get it to the control room soon enough. Eggman took away his chief desire of killing Sonic, so might as well take it out on the Möbians in any cruel way possible with a little game of tag.)

The black hedgehog had to stop by here because he needed a Chaos Emerald to more quickly overtake the Echidna (or whoever it was) on the Eclipse Cannon spire, but when he came to the control room itself, he was in for a surprise.

There was Rouge, standing in front of the six Chaos Emeralds, and while Shadow silently walked closer, he heard her say eagerly. "Ah, now I have six of the Chaos Emeralds, and I can always find the other one. Now they're all mine, all mine!" Her voice raised high in anticipation.

Shadow had other ideas. "I don't think so."

Rouge spun about. "Shadow! My, do you have a way of appearing at the worst times."

"I wouldn't call it the worst, for I find it most beneficial to me. And was that you planned all along, to get the Chaos Emeralds for yourself? Or was it a direct order from the human President?"

Rouge said nothing.

"Yes, I know who you are, Rouge the Bat. You are a government spy for the Möbian Agency of Intelligence, aren't you?"

Shadow smiled coldly. The tables had been turned.

Rouge turned to the side, crossing her arms, but still peered at Shadow. "So, I see you did your homework, Shadow. I'd call it an infringement on privacy."

"I could say the same about you. You were always asking or wanting to ask about me in any way or form, be it directly or underhandedly."

"Hmph, it's my job, dearie. I'm taking what I think is sufficient payment for my troubles in helping you boys."

Shadow swung up onto the platforms, and his scarlet eyes met Rouge's jade ones. "You don't deserve even the fake Emerald. You are one pathetic creature!"

"And you are no better?" Rouge was cool and collected. "What do you think this is?" Rouge pulled out her printouts from her pack between her wings, and displayed them to Shadow.

"This is a printout on information of the ultimate lifeform under Project Shadow. And if this report is what it says the ultimate lifeform, then who…or what is standing right in front of me?"

Shadow glared at the picture that showed a diagram of the ultimate lifeform. A quick glance at it told Shadow that according to this report, he was not the so-called ultimate lifeform.

Shadow tried to mask his hidden identity crisis, but wasn't sure if he had succeeded. If he wasn't the ultimate lifeform, according to this report, then…who or what was he?

He looked up and saw Rouge peering at him, triumphantly. Shadow's anger rose and he shoved his way to the Emeralds. He yanked out the Green Chaos Emerald and glared back at Rouge, who hadn't changed her general posture.

"If you want to live, leave the Emeralds where they are. Otherwise, Metal-Sonic will find you and won't spare you the mercy I just showed and will never after."

Shadow leaped off the platform, back onto the walkway, for the sake of getting away from Rouge.

"Do you really think that you still are the ultimate lifeform, despite what this report says?" Rouge said, smiling.

Shadow had his back turned towards the bat, but heard the familiar rustle of paper. He didn't answer.

"You know, even your memories could be fake as well…"

That did it. Shadow spun around with a ferocious glare at Rouge. "Listen, bat! I am Shadow the Hedgehog, the ultimate lifeform created by Professor Gerald and born upon the ARK. I have a commission to destroy the inhabitants of that pathetic planet, and I will include you with them if you continue to pester me further, understand?"

Shadow didn't wait for an answer. He waved the Emerald around and vanished in a flash of green light.

Rouge stood in the darkness of the control room, seething at being threatened, but pleased to see that the great Shadow received a chink in his armor. Now she will just have to exploit it further.

-----

8:22 PM

7 minutes, 8 seconds till cannon fire

Sonic had arrived at the bottom of the spire, which from his position seemed to stretch to connect with the planet, but he knew better. This was about to send out a message of death to the planet if he didn't do anything but stand there.

It took a quick search to find a ladder that lead to spiraling-upwards ramp. Sonic climbed the ladder, two steps at a time, and began ascending the ramp.

He wasn't even a hundred feet from the ARK's face when he saw a flash of green in the corner of his eye. At first, he thought it was a figment of his imagination, due to the shock of teleporting at the same time as the pod exploding. Then, he heard an oily voice that made him jump.

"You are indeed full of surprises, my dear Sonic."

Sonic turned his head to see Shadow, not six feet away, bearing the Green Emerald and a cruel look. Sonic began walking along the ramp, and Shadow went along on the side. Stride by stride, they matched, one blue hedgehog and a black one.

Shadow continued, "I believed that escape pod you were contained in had exploded in space, killing you."

Sonic flashed a grin and a glance at Shadow. "Heh, what can I say? I die hard."

"I am curious on how you were able to escape, you being just a regular hedgehog."

"Heh, your first mistake, I guess. If I was so regular, I would've died."

Shadow did not reply.

"But to humor you…" Sonic revealed the Yellow Emerald fake in his hand. "…it was you who really saved me, in a way."

"So YOU have the real one?"

Sonic's eyes narrowed mischievously. "Maybe…"

"You must, for you couldn't have been able to master the Chaos Control with a fake Emerald."

Sonic shrugged, and quickened to a jog. Shadow followed suit.

"There must be more to you then just looking like me," Shadow said quietly. "Who are you?"

Sonic glanced at Shadow, wondering at first if Shadow was joking for once, but the black hedgehog's eyes showed blissful wonder, being isolated on a space station with no other Möbians had given. Shadow had never met nor seen another hedgehog before he met Sonic. Sonic was obliged to feel sorry for him.

"Well, Shads, take a good look. What you see is what you get: just a guy who loves adventure." Sonic quickened his gait. "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Shadow had activated his hoverskates and was gliding along leisurely.

"I see, but you must know, I can't let you live. Your adventure days are coming to an end!"

"Bring it on, Shadow!" Sonic said, just before rocketing forward.

Sonic and Shadow raced side by side, reading each other's defenses. Shadow had the real disadvantage for his skates were near frictionless, so if Sonic nudged him off the narrow ramp, Shadow would slip off. Shadow met this with a Chaos Control from his Emerald.

Shadow however was more battle experienced and more aggressive, so Sonic had to be very careful.

The race took them to a maze of ramps and ladders that seemed to go everywhere, and speed was no issue here, and the race to the Eclipse Cannon became a race for survival.

Shadow struck first. He went into a spin and threw himself onto Sonic's side. Sonic was knocked off, the ladder, but his new teleporting trick was very nice to have. He had trouble the first few times, but it grew easier.

"Nice try, Shadow, but not good enough!" Sonic said, slightly bruised on his side, but loosing none of his spunk.

Sonic reached a ladder first and began to climb. Shadow reached it two seconds later, and began to climb. Sonic curled into a ball and let gravity pull him into Shadow's face. Shadow was spent sprawling and he fell off the ladder. Sonic was able to grab hold of the ladder again and raced again.

Sonic just reached the top before the black hedgehog teleported back onto the ladder, clearly vengeful.

"Before this is over, I'll show you the true power of Chaos Control!" Shadow raced ahead.

"You want it, you got it!" Sonic retorted.

The two supersonic hedgehogs raced side by side, Sonic's two strides matching Shadow's one skating stride.

Sonic aimed a kick to Shadow's waist, but Shadow caught Sonic's leg and flung him to the ground, where as Shadow placed one of his flaming hoverskates dangerously close to Sonic's eyes.

The blue hedgehog quickly retaliated with a kick with his free leg into Shadow's back, which flung him forward. Sonic had to rub his eyes, for those jets were powerful.

"Very good, hedgehog," Shadow hissed, rubbing his back. "I didn't see that coming…"

"Of course, you can't see at your back, Shadow," Sonic smiled back, and raced off again, Shadow gliding after him in the blink of an eye.

They had reached a long stretch of unstable platforms that soon collapsed underneath them. Shadow had the least difficulty, for he just teleported across. Sonic didn't think about teleporting until the first platform he was on collapsed and fell beneath him. After the initial shock of that, he used the Emerald to teleport, about ten feet behind Shadow.

"I've been waiting for you…"

"I know you were." Sonic half smiled, half bared his teeth.

"You haven't seen anything yet…" Shadow growled, returning a flash of teeth of his own.

The race was on again, but Shadow still had another trick up his sleeve, and planned to use it. Sonic had glimpsed to his side at Shadow, looking for a hole in his defense to exploit, when Shadow's Green Emerald flashed yellowish.

"Chaos Spear!"

Sonic saw the Emerald flash once, then he felt something he never felt before. A yellow-green lightning bolt of Chaos energy had raced from the expanse above and struck him in the back, sending him to the ground, dazed and stupefied at what happened. Shadow kicked him and glided off.

It was a few seconds before Sonic worked up the concentration to Chaos Control back up the Eclipse Cannon. Gah, that hurt…

Shadow didn't show any emotion to Sonic's reappearance, but Sonic saw that he was gloating over the Chaos Spear behind his red eyes.

Sonic didn't have the nerve to go through that again, but wondered if he could Chaos Spear Shadow...

He felt around the Emerald, as he did as if trying to find the Chaos Control, but never found the Chaos Spear. It irritated him because Shadow kept distracting him with a few blindside attacks.

Then, he picked up something. Nothing like Chaos Spear, but it was swift, cool, and strong. It reminded Sonic of the power of running at Mach 1. Now, to unleash it…

"Sonic Wind!"

Shadow ran straight into straight-line 100 mph winds that blew him straight off the tower. Sonic was unaffected being the wielder of the Chaos Emerald that wielded the power, even if it was fake…

Shadow teleported back up, his eyes kindling some.

Sonic's watched beeped suddenly and he glanced at it. Good grief! Only thirty seconds before the cannon would fire again! He concentrated on the tip of the Eclipse Cannon and teleported.

He landed on the tip which was about four-feet wide. There was a green flash and Shadow was there too.

"Heh, great minds think alike, eh Shadow?"

"Fools seldom differ…" Shadow had his usual pose, erect and arms crossed.

"Dude, Eggman I'm sure needs that Emerald you have, and you're just going to become toast standing here!"

"As will you, hedgehog."

Fifteen seconds to go….Sonic heard a deep rumbling and felt internal machinery move. The tower began to split into four.

Ten seconds to go….The actual Eclipse Cannon was revealed, a long, thin spire, pointing towards the planet. The lens of the laser was clear in the base. The only way Sonic was that it was glowing green.

Five seconds to go…Shadow teleported away in a flash of green, to which Sonic smirked. He looked down at the lens as it was glowing neon green. He raised the Emerald to throw it down into what looked like a pool of liquid fire, when all the sudden, it died.

The whole cannon stayed open, but the green was gone.

"What happened?" Sonic wondered out loud.

He soon felt the tower shake suddenly and decided to scram. He teleported away.

-----

Metal-Sonic raced into the control room, his torso-jet smoking white, and saw Rouge with her back towards Mecha, standing beside the Chaos Emeralds.

"What are you doing?" Metal-Sonic growled, which in a metallic overtone is not a pleasant sound.

Rouge turned and said coolly. "Just guarding the Emeralds, dearie. Somebody has to." She glanced at the Emerald in Mecha's gloved claws. "I see you found the last one."

Mecha ignored her, strode towards the console and jammed the Emerald into an available socket. He saw that there was still one available. He glanced over the colors twice to see what color is missing, then glared at Rouge.

"What?" Rouge asked innocently.

"Where…is the Green Chaos Emerald, Rouge…?" Metal-Sonic said, saying each syllable clearly and slowly.

"You think I stole it?"

"It's a possibility." Mecha flexed his claws.

"It just might, but I didn't. Shadow took it to do something. I'm sure he'll be back."

Mecha didn't reply, but eyed Rouge due to small amount of disbelief, but was distracted when he heard a commotion out in the halls: assorted voices, some heavy footfalls.

"It's the intruders," Mecha said, but not out of surprise. It sounded calm, as if he found them no threat. "Protect the Emeralds with your life, I will face them."

His claws and arm turned into a revolver laser gun, which would spin as it fired, giving a high speed rate of fire, a little weapon be "borrowed" from his predecessor, Silver-Sonic.

He fired a few warning shots into the dark passage-way, which in reply came a few shouts of surprise and more of the heavy footfalls.

"Fools."

Mecha saw the Cyclone stomp his direction, and fired more. Tails in the Cyclone returned fire. Mecha knew that a few good shots from that mech would heavily damage him, so he dodged quickly, while returning fire. The laser blasts only met strong armor that just charred the paint.

Sally was hiding behind the Cyclone leg, wishing that Mecha hadn't destroyed her laser pistol.

Mecha took a blast to the arm, which burned in and revealed some of the machinery side. Angry, he fired several more blasts, hoping some would connect.

On the other side of this firefight, Tails was still angry and anguished at Sonic being dead and he could do nothing about it now. He thought of all the possibilities he could've rescued Sonic, and that just made him feel more miserable. He let the Cyclone's laser blasts at Mecha scream his screams inside.

Several blasts came dangerously within an inch of his head, but he didn't notice. He was too focused on his sorrow-filled wrath.

He even didn't notice when Mecha titled his head at an odd angle, but he did notice when Mecha retreated back into the control room.

"Hey! He retreated!" Sally said from the side.

"Let's go!" Tails said, leading the Cyclone into a jog.

They turned the corner, and one by one, their jaws fells out of their heads. In the room was Dr. Robotnik, a little charred, but still brandishing his large gun. Metal-Sonic stood on one side of him and Rouge on the other.

"How did you get here?" Tails asked in disbelief.

"It's very simple, fox boy, I walked to a nearby teleporter pad and just recalibrated it to beam me here. I couldn't do it with my Eggwalker…" Eggman shot a glare at Tails. "…but it doesn't matter. When Shadow returns, you shall witness the rise of the Empire of Dr. Ivo Robotnik!"

Tails didn't really fear the gun Robotnik had, but if he advanced, he'd expose the girls and the chao to Metal-Sonic. Darn it! He was caught in a standoff! If he moved, the girls would be harmed doubtless, and if he stayed…

There was a flash of green on the narrow walkway and there stood Shadow, he saw the intruders first and grinned. He held up the Emerald, daring anyone of the girls, chao or Tails to grab it. He strode towards the console, and Tails felt the same wave of helplessness go over him.

Shadow gave the Emerald to Robotnik. "Would you like to do the honors?"

"Why, yes, Shadow…" Robotnik chuckled sinisterly.

Shadow coasted out of the room, and the girls let him pass uneventfully. As for Robotnik, he took the Emerald, and jammed it dramatically into the available socket.

The reaction was like pouring kerosene into fire. At once the computers blared a "FAILURE!" and made deafening sirens. Rouge winced in spite of herself and fluttered out of the room. Metal-Sonic grew irritated too and flew after her, but another reason was that his scanners detected a surge of chaos energy in the science bay.

Everyone was wondering what started the chaos. Robotnik was the only one not holding his ears. He was surprised and frustrated. He expected everything to go smoothly, but all the controls were locked.

"Let's get out of here!" Tails shouted, barely audible above the noise.

Everyone retreated into the halls, while Robotnik was left alone inside, trying tomake sense of the mess.

"Why won't the cannon fire?" Robotnik growled over and over.

He looked up at the screen again, and let out an oath. There, on the screen, was a video playing of an old man that had a large resemblance to Eggman.

"It's…my grandfather!"

Chapter 15: The End?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sonic had teleported into the science bay where he had been jettisoned from and found it empty, save for a mess of severely burned metal scraps on the floor. He was still holding the fake Yellow Emerald, and had just gotten there when he heard a voice…

"Hey! Where is everyone?"

It sounded like Knuckles. Sonic rushed for the door and looked outside. Knuckles was down the hall, trying to figure out where he was.

"Hey, Knux!"

Knuckles turned and saw Sonic peering out. He waved at him.

"Hey, have you seen anyone?"

"Nope, except Shadow, like that counts."

Suddenly, the whole colony shook.

"What's going on?" Knuckles said, surpised.

"I don't know! Dude, come in here…"

Knuckles ran into the room, half-stumbling from the shaking. They just got in there, when they heard noises from the hallways. It sounded like a distant jet coming their way. Sonic knew what it was at once.

"Mecha!" Sonic braced himself, ready for the navy-blue robot to appear any second.

A few seconds later, the robot roared into the room, and looked around. It's eyes immediately rested on Sonic, and it physically jumped.

"Ssssonic!" Mecha said in complete surprise. "You survived!"

"And kicking." Sonic smiled, just as another wave of tremors hit the space station.

Metal-Sonic hovered to keep his balance. "What is the cause of this?"

No one answered, but a few seconds later, Rouge walked in with a strange look on her face.

"You? You haven't given up yet?" Knuckles threw up his fists.

"I'm not after your Emerald. Even if I did, it wouldn't mean any good to me now…"

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.

"I just got a call from my boss back in Sapphire City." Rouge answered, her voice trembling slightly. "The satellites have been trained at ARK ever since last night, and they found that the ARK…now…is approaching the planet at an incredible velocity! It's about to smash into the planet!"

"What?" Sonic and Knuckles said in unison.

"It's true…" Rouge said, despairingly.

"Transmission detected." Metal-Sonic stood erect and looked at a screen display on one side of the room. On it was playing a video of an old man, tied to a chair, with a large white moustache.

Sonic and Knuckles turned to see what Mecha was staring at, and saw the computer movie. "Who's that?"

They stood still and watched as the video played. The man sounded half-mad.

"This is a death sentence to Möbius. If my calculations are correct, the space colony with collide with the earth with a force equal to 4.5 million atomic bombs in less then 27 minutes. This program will activate when all seven Chaos Emeralds power the ARK. There's no overriding it. It will destroy all of you people and your precious planet. All of you ungrateful humans, who took everything away from me, will soon feel my loss and despair!"

There was a pause, then someone off camera said. "Is there anything else you need to say?"

The man shook his head. "No."

"Ready, men--"

There was a brief moment of static, then the movie replayed.

"Dude, he sounded off his rocker…" Sonic said.

"But he's correct," Metal-Sonic replied. "The ARK's orbit has decayed dramatically. Estimated target, 1.34 miles north of Sapphire City."

"What are we going to do?" Rouge asked from the side.

There was a ruckus in the nearby hall, some shouting and metal clanking. Some sounded very frightened, especially when the rumbling increased. A few screams rang through the halls that sounded familiar.

"Amy?" Sonic wondered…

The rest of the chatter was undecipherable, until someone said, "Let's get back into the room where we were before."

The crowd of Möbians came in and when they saw Sonic, their moods flip-flopped.

"SONIC!" Amy was the first to bolt forward and pounced on Sonic, who lost his footing. Tails and the others were next, all expressing their joy to see Sonic again, alive and real.

"How did you get out?"

"I love you Sonic!"

"We thought you were dead for sure!"

"I love you Sonic!"

"We're so glad to see you…"

"I love you Sonic!"

"Ok, ok, ok!" Sonic said. "Amy, nice to know. I'm very glad to see you guys, but we got a big problem…"

Sonic showed them the screen that was still playing the video. It was already halfway through, but it was presented well enough.

"So this whole space station is one gigantic nuclear bomb?" Tails reasoned.

"That's mean!" Cream said, her child-like mind working as usual.

"We gotta stop this, now!" Sally said.

"Who is that, anyway?" Amy asked.

"It's my grandfather…" a voice said.

All spun around to see the spherical figure of Dr. Robotnik. He used a teleporter to get back to the outer circles of the ARK, after failing to recalibrate the program.

"Professor Gerald Robotnik, the greatest scientific genius of his day, and my grandfather." Robotnik stepped deeper into the room, every eye following him.

"Stop it right now, Eggman, or else I'll--" Knuckles said, pounding his fists.

"I would've stopped this before if I had the chance!" snapped Robotnik. "Rouge, take this. Put it into the console near the computer."

The human gave the bat a small disk, who looked it over. "What's this?"

"It's my grandfather's diary…"

Rouge strode towards the computer console and put into the appropriate slot. A few seconds later, a document appeared. Rouge read the words aloud for everyone.

"Was it wrong to create the ultimate lifeform?

"I ask myself this from my cell on Prison Island, reflecting on the last several months of my life. I've lost everything except my memories, but what good are they when I die?

"I remember first being relocated out to the ARK, the first space colony of mankind. I was part of a team of scientists in the biophysics department. I found that there were also a team of scientists that were inventing weapons for the military. I knew that this would not go well for the colonies if the ARK ever fell into the wrong hands.

"Even before we moved to the ARK, we had been planning a project and began some of the work. We had connections to the Möbians with strong Chaos auras. Most of them were Echidnas who had Chaos Warriors, who thrived on the power of Chaos. We wondered if we could produce a Möbian with the strongest ever Chaos aura in history. We called out project, Shadow. We would deal with different species to see which ones would work best for us.

"I acquired two Emeralds to use with the prototypes. We first tried Echidna embryos, but none lived.

"One prototype that survived the radiation from the Chaos Emerald was a hedgehog embryo. Upon research, we found that Möbian hedgehogs had very strong auras at birth. Echidnas were bombarded with the energy when still in eggs. We named the hedgehog 'Shadow' after the project.

"The hedgehog grew with red fur, but when it was two years old, its fur darkened to a coal-black, while the lining of the spines and limbs remained blood-red. We began training it for using the Chaos Emerald we had.

"When out specimen, Shadow, reached the age of five, we relocated to the facilities inside ARK. Shadow still could not use the Emerald properly and would often throw fits of rage.

"Then one day, I received news from my family. My beloved daughter, and her husband were killed in a car accident. I'll miss them horribly. By divinity, their daughter, my granddaughter, Maria, and her brother, Kent, was still alive. I decided to take them in; they were my only link to my beloved daughter, now gone.

"Interestingly, Shadow was very interested in my two grandchildren, Maria more so. I suppose it would make sense, the hedgehog born in a laboratory being alone all the time, not having the proper parenting.

"Shadow and Maria grew to be very close to each other. It got to the point where Shadow would die rather then leave Maria alone.

"Another part of our project was to create a lifeform that would be able to survive virtually anywhere. We tampered with Shadow to do such as well, but he wasn't our main objective. We decided to use a sample of an amphibian since they were already adept to living on land and sea.

"It was years later, when Shadow was in his teens, and Maria was 12 when things progressed rapidly. Shadow was able to use the Emerald in fascinating ways. He was able to stop time, teleport and summon a lightning bolt.

"Then, it happened. G.U.N. troops had invaded the ARK. Apparently, some politicians back on the surface weaseled their way to shut down our operations on the ARK. They arrested many of the scientists, including me. Shadow, Maria, Kent, I hope you are all right. I found out later that the ARK was shut down under the premise that there was an accident.

"I sit in my cell for what seem like years, and news is that my dear granddaughter, Maria, was killed. I weep for her as I type these words. Shadow had been brought to me, and I could see in his eyes that he wanted to make the humans suffer.

"I too want the humans to suffer. They killed Maria, they put Kent in a foster home, my colleagues and friends, in prison, innocent of anything! I couldn't bear that. I went into fits of insanity.

"I told Shadow about out project nestled deep in the ARK, and that it holds the secret to revenge.

"Reader, if you want to fill the world with destruction, release Shadow."

Rouge stopped reading and turned to Robotnik. "So THAT'S why you released Shadow from the base!"

"Yes, but I wasn't ready for this catastrophe!" Robotnik said. "The Chaos Emeralds have been absorbed into the power of the ARK. To stop the ARK, we must stop the energy!"

Robotnik strode towards the computer and pulled up the schematics and maps of the ARK. "Computer, track the Chaos Emeralds!"

There was a bleep and a cursor appeared on the screen, taking twists and turns around the ARK's center, finally stopping close to the center, a little below.

"What's down there?" Knuckles asked.

"The cannon's core, where the energy from the Chaos Emeralds converts to usable energy."

"Is there a way to get down there?" Sally asked.

"Yes, but it'll take time…time we don't have."

"Oh, yes we do." Sonic held up the fake Yellow Emerald. "I can stop time with this. I can do it better then teleporting."

"So THAT'S how you escaped, but right now, that's fortunate. Now for the hard par. How to stop the Chaos Emeralds?" Robotnik said.

Rouge brightened up suddenly. "That's it! I know how. We must use the Master Emerald!"

Knuckles looked up suddenly.

"You told me that the Master Emerald has the power to control the Chaos Emeralds."

Knuckles understood. "Yes, if I can get to the core, I can use the Master to stop the Chaos Emeralds."

"Well, let's go!" Robotnik said. "I know the way. Tails, we'll need your mech. It has the strongest firepower now. We'll need to destroy the boundaries that block the paths to the core. If we work together, we can do this."

"Dash, Frosty, go with Tails. Let's go! We only have about 23 minutes!"

"Mecha, we may need you," Robotnik said.

"Affirmative."

Sally took Sonic's hand. "Be careful, Sonic…"

"Thanks, Sal. Take care of the others while I'm gone, will you?"

"Yes."

"I gotta go. Bye…"

Sonic raced out the door, followed by everyone else, except Sally, Cream, Amy and Cheese.

"Be safe…"

-----

17 minutes, 23 seconds before crash

The troupe was standing in a maze of corridors, passageways and what not, receiving instructions.

"Tails, you must destroy the door on the far end of this chamber. Be careful: There's toxic waste residue all over. It'll harm your mech if you're too close. Once you destroy the door, we can proceed," Robotnik said.

Sonic held up his Emerald. "I'll come back for you guys. Ready, Tails?"

Tails gripped the controls. "Ready."

"Chaos Control!"

Everything held still, and Tails looked around, seeing everything frozen. "Wow!"

"Hurry, it doesn't last forever. Let's find that door!"

Sonic went in the lead, keeping an eye on the Emerald, for if it flickered, time was running out. They came close to what looked like green water. It was the power residue, so both sought to avoid it. After what would be thirty seconds, they found a bolted door guarded by security locks.

"I'll shoot the locks," Tails said, aiming the Vulcan cannon at the four shining electric locks with a tag laser. The targets showed up on the targeting screen in the cockpit.

The mounted Vulcan cannon swiveled and fired four shots repeatedly at the locks, breaking them.

"Let's get back to the others before time starts…" Sonic said from the side. "…hopefully, we can get the next door just as quick…"

Sonic went first, Tails in the Cyclone following at a jog. The Emerald started flickering, and soon dimmed, just as they got to the others. To them, it looked like they did nothing at all, but the intercom said otherwise:

"System alert! Security door 1 has been compromised. Initiating lockdown of core…"

"Well done, now for door two. It's a bit tricky to get, so be careful. It's directly above a water storage vessel. The water acts as a coolant. It's too high up to use the Cyclone. Mecha, I'm counting on you to destroy the security gate. Go!"

Sonic was at first unsure about teaming up with Mecha, but they really didn't have time to quibble trivially. Sonic grasped Mecha's clawed hand (Mecha didn't react) and shouted the words "Chaos Control!" and time held still.

Mecha immediately looked up. "Hedgehog, I could disintegrate your existence right here and the doctor would be powerless to stop me, but in so doing, I endanger myself for you are the only possibility to prolong my existence. Consider your death postponed until after we stop the ARK. Agreed?"

Sonic looked strange at Mecha, but didn't answer the question. "Look, let's stop the ARK and after that, we'll talk about the fights. Now, let's juice…"

-----

Amy had managed to get away from Sally a little bit and was strolling up and down the dingy hall, ignoring the rumbling from the space station's movement. She was too upset at the others to notice.

"Ooh! I hate it when I'm left behind like a dishrag! I was able to beat that robot Zero and rescue the Flickies from the Egg Carrier, but do they count that? No! I'm 14, and I can take care of myself! But do they think that? No!"

She was in this mode of thought when she heard a distant door slam, and looked up. She saw Shadow marching down the hall towards her. No wait, not towards her…Shadow past Amy without even gracing her with an acknowledgement of her existence. The black hedgehog went into another room, but didn't shut the door.

Amy looked after Shadow for a moment, then realized that marching up and down the hall like a whiny baby would not help anyone.

"I really need to stop whining. Everyone else is trying to do their best, and so must I…well, not everyone's doing there best, I suppose…" she glanced at Shadow's room again.

Amy half-ran into the room and discovered Shadow near the window, looking at the planet, which now looked bigger then before. Amy ran closer, and one of Shadow's ears twitched at the noise of her footsteps.

"Shadow?" Amy started.

Shadow didn't reply.

"Shadow, I know you can hear me. We need your help! Please!"

Shadow still didn't respond.

-----

15 minutes, 17 seconds until ARK crash

The troupe was in a cylindrical room where orange-ish colored water was pouring in from all sides and being drained away in a moat around the base of the room.

Metal-Sonic had blasted a gate from above with the aid of Sonic's ability of Chaos Control. In less then two minutes real time, two of the four doors were already deactivated.

They stood near an armor-plated shield that protected what looked like a large pressure pad inside.

"Rouge, according to the readouts, this is the pressure pad that will drain the liquid from the passageway that Sonic and Knuckles must go to get to the core. But to do that, you must disable the shield around it."

Rouge fluttered her wings, and winked at Sonic. "Ready, manly?"

Sonic half-smiled and held up the fake Emerald, grasping to Rouge's hand. "Chaos Control!"

The world froze. Sonic and Rouge rushed through a frozen waterfall. Interestingly, they didn't get wet. They didn't think about this for they had to save a planet.

It was here they found a problem. The very next room had toxic residue from the ARK piled high here. It was a sea of death, in a way. To make things worse, the gate ahead seemed locked.

"Dang it. That's nice to see…" Sonic said.

"There's got to be a way…wait, I have an idea!" Rouge said, digging through her pouch. "Being an agent for the government has its advantages."

"An agent?" Sonic looked at Rouge as if she just switched colors like a chameleon. "If you're an agent, how come you hunt for jewels?"

"Oh, it's a hobby, you might say. Cases don't bring money in as easily as jewels do. Aha, here it is!"

Rouge pulled out a small gadget that looked like half of a ball. She flew across the toxic pit and placed it on the gate. She flew back.

"Now, what I said to you before, you cannot repeat to anyone else. I knew you'd ask anyway if I pulled out a surface detonator. Do I have your word?"

"Crosshairs on my heart." Sonic smiled…for some reason, he liked this girl.

Rouge pressed a button on a little gadget she had in her other hand and there was a violent bang and crash! Sonic and Rouge looked and saw that the gate had been decimated and what was left was sinking in the residue.

"Now's our chance: Let's go!" Rouge said, flying over.

Sonic went into a stationary spin-dash and he followed Rouge over. The switch was in the next room.

"There's the switch!" Sonic said, pointing to a large pressure pad on the floor. "Let's do it; my Emerald's already flickering…"

Rouge stomped with all her might onto the pressure pas, then Sonic took Rouge by the hand and made a dash for it.

"Are we going to make it?" Rouge asked.

"I dunno. Hold on, I'm gonna jump it with a Power Ring!"

Sonic had his Power Ring out in a flash, and unleashed its power. Sonic's blue fur lit up a few candelas and Sonic jumped. The power threw him over the toxic waste, through the tunnel and back to the others when the Emerald dimmed and time restarted.

"Excellent! Hurry, press the pressure pad!" Robotnik commanded.

Knuckles advanced first and gave it a firm stomp.

There was a sudden rush of the familiar water roar, then the speaker noised over the roar, "System alert! Coolant flow has been compromised. Proceeding lockdown."

"We must get out of here before the place floods. Sonic, back to the top!"

"Way ahead of ya, doc! Huddle!" Everyone gathered around Sonic. "Chaos Control!"

Everyone teleported away in a flash of yellow light, just as the room began to flood. They reappeared high above. They looked down to see the water rapidly rising.

"We are safe up here. The door is right over there…" Robotnik motioned towards a door, heavily bolted with security locks. "It's too strong for the Cyclone, and the switch is now waterlogged. One of us has to dive in and find the switch to deactivate the locks."

"Hold it!" Sonic objected. "You mean to say we have to SWIM?"

"There's no other way," Robotnik replied.

"Not to be over-realistic here," Knuckles started. "but none of us has the lung capacity to even try…"

"I realize that, but I have the solution." Robotnik pulled out a strange gadget that looked like a segmented tube with a string connected to each end, as if it was designed to wear. "This is an Air Necklace. It takes the oxygen dissolved in the water, and makes it breathable, much like fish gills. It's been used by divers for experimentation, for the Bends was always a problem. This eliminates the risk--

"Not to seem pushy here, but the ARK has about 13 minutes till it crashes…" Sonic said.

"I'll do it. I'm the best swimming," Knuckles said, taking the necklace and placing it over his neck. "I put it on my mouth through here, right?" He motioned to a slit in the pipe.

"Yes…"

Sonic walked forward. "I can give you a head start with this Emerald, but you'll still need to hurry."

"Got it…I'll go as fast as I can. Let's do it…" Knuckles took Sonic's hand into his large one.

"Chaos Control!"

Knuckles dived into the water and swam downwards. About halfway down was a tunnel that led deeper into the water. Knuckles was all right with swimming, but the warmth of the water made him feel drowsy. Also, he felt like he was being stalked by a shark or something. He kept glancing behind him, expecting to see something swimming around. He recalled something about in a sci-fi movie that Sonic liked a lot about a creature that lived in the garbage mashers that attacked some people that fell into it.

Another thing that was odd was even though the water was perfectly still, it still felt like he was running into currents. He thought that strange…

Once he reached the tunnel that led into the next hydro-chamber, he swam through, having trouble due to running into what felt like a current but he managed. On the other side was a very large switch, protected by a shield of glass, sitting on the wall. Knuckles smirked; like glass was going to stop him. He raised his fist and smashed through the glass. He reached in and activated the switch by pulling down the lever.

He began to go back in the tunnel, when time apparently restarted; for all the sudden, he was hearing a loud roar and he was sent tumbling head over heels out the waterway and back into the main hydro-chamber. He swam back up to the surface.

"Good work, Knux! The last door just opened!" Sonic helped Knux to get back onto solid ground.

"Now the core is accessible. Hurry! Get down into the core and override the Chaos Emeralds. We're all depending on you…Sonic, Knuckles, Mecha, go!"

"First, I'll teleport you guys back to the main room. Then, we'll juice on down here. Huddle!"

Everyone except Knuckles and Mecha grabbed hold of Sonic, just as Sonic shouted the words "Chaos Control" and the troupe vanished. Sonic reappeared a few seconds later…

"Let's go!"

-----

Amy was looking out the same window where Shadow was looking out of. Amy had been pleading with him for the last five minutes, but Shadow didn't grace her with an answer.

Amy was looking sorrowfully down towards the planet, which was by now very large and not too far from filling up the entire view.

"It's all going according to plan…"

Shadow thought Amy couldn't hear that, but Amy was a better listener then people gave her credit for. "What?"

Shadow glanced at Amy and thought about refusing to answer, but logically it wouldn't matter. "I said that it's all going according to plan."

"You mean, this was your idea?"

"No. Professor Gerald had it hard-wired to do it. I merely set it into action…the Professor put it right. They will feel his loss and despair…"

"But that's just wrong! I know that people fight and bicker about the stupidest things, but there are quite a few that are really good people, who help others when they need it. Just because the military shut down the ARK and ruined your life around you, that doesn't mean that all the people down there deserve to be punished…"

Shadow was stock still. His inner being was warring between two parts of him: the one loyal to a certain girl who died, and the other his vengeful spirit.

"Shadow, please promise me that you won't kill them! Give them a chance to be happy! Give them a chance to live!" Amy again pleaded.

Suddenly, Shadow fell apart at the seems. He suddenly sank to the ground, and he gripped his head. Amy leapt back in fear and surprise at Shadow's sudden flow of emotion. Shadow was shaking, crying. Amy didn't know that she penetrated Shadow's iron shield around his heart, and went straight through into him.

Shadow on the other hand was feeling several emotions: anger, sadness and others. Once again, he was reliving the tragic scene with Maria, at her side again. Once again, he was reliving the heartache from that experience. Once again…he thought about his promise.

And he almost broke it!

Shadow sprang to his feet, eyes still rimmed with red. "I know what I must do. I will obey Maria…" he thought in his mind. He turned to Amy. "I must go to the core. I must keep my promise to Maria…and you."

Shadow left the room at with a rush of haste. He skated down the halls and stopped in a power-chamber. In several sockets glowed different colored tubes. Shadow unscrewed one out and admired its green glow.

"It's not a Chaos Emerald, but this chaos drive will buy me time. Chaos Control!"

Chapter 16: Cannon's Core

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10 minutes, 33 seconds before impact with Möbius…

Sonic, Knuckles and Metal-Sonic were racing down the narrow passages that were going up and down, but always more down the up. There were many places where the path seemed to drop into nothing, so all were careful, but were trying to go as fast as they could at the same time.

This took time, so Sonic Chaos Controlled regularly to help remedy the problem. The three soon came to a place where the path ended with a rushing river of the orange water coolant.

"Huh, what now?" Knuckles said, looking over the rushing water.

"Heck, I dunno. Jump in?" Sonic said, motioning to the water.

"This idle banter is a waste of time," Metal-Sonic said in disgust.

"Let's go down it. I'll Chaos Control, and we'll all rush down," Sonic suggested. "We only got about 10 minutes before the crash, so let's jam! Chaos Control!"

There was one thing that they didn't count on: even though time was still, the floor was still slippery. Sonic went into an immediate slide. Knuckles tried to catch him, but he managed to slip down the tube as well. Metal-Sonic found it remotely amusing, but there was a job to do. He jetted down after them.

-----

Shadow was skating down many a dark hallway, praying mentally that he wasn't too late to act. The words Amy said to him were comforting, but haunting, for hey were the same words Maria said just before she died.

He gripped the Chaos drive in his hand, trying to use its small bit of Chaos energy to generate the time halting effects of Chaos Control. He panted, concentrated, sweat drops beginning to run down his face. There!

"Chaos Control!"

The world froze, and he raced towards the center of the ARK, mildly wondering about a sudden strange presence…

-----

Sonic was sliding down, confused and hot. The water he was tumbling through was hot and tasted rubbery. Time had already started on him, and with it came the water. He tumbled around like a pinball, not even thinking about where in the ARK he was.

Suddenly, it stopped. He floe out of the pipe that the water was flowing through, and splashed into a small pool in a large room.

Spluttering, he dragged himself out of the water and lay on the ground. His senses began returning to him, and he found he was laying on rock! He jumped up all the sudden, thinking he was dreaming, but he was in a large room, that was made of stone and brick.

There was another splash behind him, and he looked back. Knuckles had just splashed down into the pool, and Sonic went to help him out. Mecha came in a little later, not even wet.

"I see you made it, hedgehog…"

Sonic side-eyed the robot, but said nothing to him. "Knux, you all right?"

"Yeah. I don't need a bath for a month. Where are we?"

"We are in the Cannon's Core…" Mecha said from the side.

Sonic had hoisted Knuckles out and was studying the room. On the far end was a rise in the ground, and around that were seven obelisks, each with a glow on them. Sonic recognized the color of the glows to be the Chaos Emeralds.

Knuckles saw the rise too and knew what it was. "Hey, that looks like the shrine of the Master Emerald before it was relocated to Hidden Palace…"

Sonic crossed his arms. "Heh, clever. They probably built it that way to better harness the Chaos Emeralds."

In the middle of the room was a circular flat of rock, surrounded by the flowing orange water, and another rock pathway around both sides. On the extremes of the room were just featureless parts of the floor.

But what drew all their gaze was something on the ceiling, something that Sonic hoped never to see again: it was a large mass that reminded Sonic of the vessels in the neck that sometimes can feel the throbbing of, the pump working away from the far side towards their side quickly.

"What is THAT?" Knuckles exclaimed.

"I can't relay the information to you; my scanners are being blocked by a lethal amount of Chaos energy, far more then any Chaos Emerald," Metal-Sonic said from the side.

"That doesn't sound good…" Sonic said dryly. "It's like there's something…alive in there…"

"That's the last thing we need…" Knuckles said.

"Well, let's get the Chaos Emeralds and get the heck out of here. If that DOES hatch, I don't want to be here when it does. Let's make a dash for it…"

Sonic ran first, but only went two steps when the worst happened: the mass ripped open! A wave of black energy surged outwards, knocking all three of them against the far wall. When Sonic recovered his senses, in the middle of the room where the pool was in the middle sat was the biggest creature he had ever seen, next to Perfect Chaos…

It was a light-brown and had a gray underside. A long neck and tail protruded from its wet body. Its mouth opened to let out a roar, revealing no teeth, and where its eyes should've been were only robotic implants. From its mouth came a pair of tubes that raced back over its shoulders and were absorbed into a large piece of metal gear strapped to the creatures back. It was at least 80 feet long and a good 20 feet at the shoulder.

The very sight of it made him sick.

Knuckles and Metal-Sonic came to and saw the creature. Metal-Sonic tried scanning it, but it couldn't operate due to the power that this foul beast leaked out. He contacted Dr. Robotnik who was back in the science bay. After a bit, the robot turned to the other two.

"I've just contacted the doctor and relayed out situation to him. He replied to what this creature is: it is the prototype of the Project Shadow, the ultimate lifeform that was supposed to be encapsulated. It is called the "Biolizard."

Sonic and Knuckles only half-heard it. They couldn't get their eyes off of the monstrosity. "It's between us and the Emeralds. How are we gonna get to them now?"

"It must be distracted somehow…" Metal-Sonic said.

"But how? It knocked us flat when it came out!" Knuckles asked.

"Leave it to me…" said a voice from behind everyone.

All looked behind to see Shadow, standing near the pool, brandishing a hot green glowing chaos drive.

"Shadow? What are you doing?" Sonic asked.

He didn't answer, but he strode towards the Biolizard, which was basking in the warm orange water. He looked it up and down, trying to find a weakspot, then he spotted the pack on his back. "It looks like a life support…" He turned back to the three. "I'll distract this prototype, while you get the Chaos Emeralds!"

"You're helping us?" Sonic asked.

"Long ago, I made a promise to Maria, and I intend to carry it out. Go!"

"I'll assist you," said Mecha. "I have no need to help the hedgehog get the Chaos Emeralds. I will help you fight this creature."

"If you insist…" Shadow side-eyed the Biolizard, which was peering down at them. He could feel its hatred and anger radiating from it. It chilled Shadow in a way…

Metal-Sonic attacked first. Jet active, he extended his claws and spun right into the area just below the neck meets the main body. It left a deep gash, which was bleeding a bluish blood. The beast made a snarl reminiscent to a jungle cat, and it lowered his head, searching for the perpetrator. It's "eyes" found Shadow, and it stooped down to devour him.

Shadow glided along the perimeter of the stone circle, and the Biolizard with its head to the ground, attending to snatch the hedgehog up in its mouth, dragged its fat body along.

Metal-Sonic who was hovering nearby had noticed that the flesh healed nearly immediately after he damaged it. He cursed inside; that pretty much ruined everything. There HAD to be a weakness…

Suddenly, the knees of the Biolizard buckled, and he lay flat, panting hard. Being encased in containment for 50 years, and having to fight nearly immediately after releasal gave him a very low stamina.

Shadow whirled and eyed as energy from the life-support pack was pumped into between the throbbing gills. He got an idea…

He sprang onto the pipe, which was made of a tough plastic, and grinded up it. Now on the pack itself, he spotted a black core that seemed to suck in the light around it. He went into a curl and smashed right into it.

There was an explosion like the sound of a bomb, and a visible black wave of energy spread through the room, shaking the bricks. It threw Metal-Sonic out of the air, and caused Sonic and Knuckles (who were running up the stairs of the altar) were thrown down violently against the steps. Shadow, who was at ground zero, was thrown against the stone wall, and slid down it, dazed. The Biolizard had screamed as Shadow was thrown against the wall. This all takes a moment to say, but it all happened in one time.

Metal-Sonic picked himself up, his internal gyro still wobbling, and noticed the Biolizard was stooping again to snatch up Shadow, and he did a thing that he knew would hurt him. He dove again right into the black heart of the life-support.

The same explosion again threw Mecha against the wall and he shorted out for a time. Shadow woke up from his stupor by the roar. Sonic and Knuckles were thrown down on the altar.

"There it was again! What is that?" Sonic exclaimed, picking himself up.

"I don't know," Knuckles growled as he raised himself and got back to work with the Emerald. "Help me out! There's a zillion pieces of this thing so I'll need all the help I can get."

Sonic threw himself to his knees and began withdrawing pieces to help build the Master Emerald again.

Shadow was on his hands and knees wondering what happened. He never felt such a wave of destruction before, but it didn't matter. This thing was a beast and needed to be disposed of. Shakily, he got up, and the Biolizard side-eyed him. It began dragging itself after the hedgehog, who lured the beast after him.

This time, the beast decided a new tactic. It opened his mouth, and to Shadow's surprise, it threw up a black energy ball, washed in blue sparks. It went overhead, but Shadow ducked anyway. The Biolizard spat out a few more before its energy gave out. Shadow rushed up the life-support tube, but instead of attacking the strange conspicuous black thing in the middle, he spin-dashed over and over at the tubes that were laced around the black thing.

The Biolizard let out its jungle cat roar and tried to get Shadow off its back by rolling over and over on itself, but Shadow leaped off just as it made its first spin.

Nearby, Metal-Sonic had just "awakened" and was shakily recovering his senses. Shadow skated up to him.

"Listen, Mecha. The weakness is the tubes around the black mass on its back. You rip the tubes out with your claws; I'll distract it. It's gets fatigued too easily."

"Affirmative. I'm all desirous to kill this…creature." Metal-Sonic was unsure what to call this monstrosity.

Shadow skated towards the creature again. The Biolizard was very angry by now and it displayed sudden swiftness that took Shadow and Mecha off guard. It stood high up and started firing down its blackish energy balls at the two. Shadow and Mecha were hard pressed to keep from being hit.

Sonic had observed this little battle from the pyramid, and watched in fear and awe as the Biolizard rained down its unholy rage.

"There!" Knuckles said.

Sonic spun back and found that Knuckles had put in the last piece of the Master Emerald. Thankfully, it didn't break as much as it did two years before.

"Sonic, I'll need your help. Place your hands on the Emerald. We need to say the command together, since we're too far from Hidden Palace."

"Got it!" Sonic smacked his palms against the Emerald, feeling its warmth. "Let's do it, or Shadow and Mecha will be so toast! What do we say to stop the Emeralds?"

"Remember what Tikal said to stop Perfect Chaos?" Knuckles said.

"Yeah?"

"That came in different variations, and that one that Tikal said stopped the Emeralds. Focus on the Master, and say it with me…"

Both Sonic and Knuckles took a deep breath and stared into the Emerald's green heart. Knuckles began, but Sonic began saying with him in unison.

"The servers are the Seven Chaos; Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart, the Controller is the one that unifies the Chaos; Master Emerald, read my heart! STOP THE CHAOS EMERALDS!"

There was a violent flash from the Master Emerald, knocking both Sonic and Knuckles down. Green lightning flashed out and struck all the Emeralds in one strike, and there was a terrible crack of thunder that seemed to break the room! The Emeralds flew from their obelisks and settled at the Master's base.

The Biolizard stopped and suddenly fell flat on the floor, writhing in agony. It roared hideously! Shadow and Mecha leaped back. Sonic and Knuckles watched in disgust as the slimy beast roared, pawed at the air and to all's surprise, it vanished in a flash of bluish light.

All winced at the sudden light. "Is it gone?" Knuckles asked.

"Where'd it go?" Sonic asked.

Shadow and Mecha rushed towards the two on the altar. Shadow reached it first. "Was that Chaos Control?"

The whole room shook suddenly, and all knelt to keep their balance.

"We stopped the Chaos Emeralds!" Sonic cried out. "Why is the ARK still on crash-course with Möbius?"

The shaking subsided, and all picked themselves up. Metal-Sonic tilted his head in an odd way, then looked back at the three. "I just got word from Dr. Robotnik: the Biolizard is still alive, and is perch on the nose of the Eclipse Cannon. It has now merged its mind with the space colony and is keeping it on collision course."

"We must kill him, now!" Shadow said from the side.

"And we will. C'mon, Shadow! Gather up the Emeralds!" Sonic said, scooping up a few.

Shadow complied, but couldn't help asking why.

"I'll show you." Sonic put down the Emeralds, but kept the green one. "Shadow, grasp this with me."

Shadow placed both hands on the Emerald. He stood on one side, Sonic stood on the other. "Concentrate on the Emerald's power, its ultimate power…"

Shadow closed its eyes, and Sonic did the same. There was a pause for a few seconds, but then the Emeralds all began to glow hotly. The six remaining Emeralds rose up and began spinning slowly around Sonic and Shadow, then they speed up until they became blurs of light.

"Let go!" Sonic cried out.

Shadow barely heard over the power resonance that was ringing through his mind through to the concentration, but he let go.

The Green Emerald flew out and joined the orbiting one. Then, the Emeralds evaporated into energy and embedded themselves into both Sonic and Shadow.

A pillar of Chaos energy rose from their feet, and both rose off the ground. Sonic's fur became ivory white, then faded to a hot burning yellow, his spines standing up from the rush of energy. Shadow was similar, but his fur turned creamish but the red lining of the spines and limbs were blood-red.

"We're Super Sonic and Super Shadow now!" Super Sonic said from nearby. "Let's kick some lizard butt!"

Shadow was amazed at why he didn't know about this Chaos power before, but he gave a determined nod.

"Chaos Control!" both shouted, and they disappeared in a flash of light.

Metal-Sonic and Knuckles stood in the silence of the room, while the Master Emerald glowed hotly behind.

"We shall return to the science bay. There's nothing more to do, but wait…" Metal-Sonic said at last.

Knuckles nodded in agreement, and picked up the Master Emeralds. Strangely enough, it shrank in its hand until it could fit into his pack. That trick would've bee nice to know before now, Knuckles thought.

Metal-Sonic picked up Knuckles by the arm and speed up the water tunnels again to get out of the core.

Chapter 17: To The Death…

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5 minutes, 23 seconds before crash…

Back in the science bay, all waited nervously, the planet filling up the entire view. Tails glanced out the window once, and felt sick.

Neither said a word when Knuckles and Metal-Sonic stalked into the room, silent as stone. Metal-Sonic was emotionless to all eyes, but Sally knew enough to know that when Knuckles doesn't speak, he's worried.

Dr. Robotnik had already informed them that the prototype had survived the beating it got from Metal-Sonic and Shadow, and had reappeared at the nose of the Eclipse Cannon. Sonic and Shadow were out there now, trying to fight them…

All looked breathlessly as two sparks of light that looked like stars flying at high speeds to the Biolizard.

"Be careful, Sonic…" Sally breathed.

-----

The power inside the Biolizard didn't die, even as the power from the Emeralds was severed. It's life support was still working some, and the creature was determined to fulfill its task that the Professor created it to do.

In less then five minutes, its task would be complete. It would die, but it would die honoring its creator.

A surge of Chaos energy distracted it and it glanced to see two glowing specks of yellow and white racing towards them. Enemies! it thought, They must not stop my task to obey my master!

Super Sonic raced forward first, and struck the creature in its side, but he merely bounced off. Super Shadow struck again and again at the joints of the Biolizard, but this had no effect either. The two super-charged hedgehogs backed off.

"Dude! Even as Super, we still can't hurt him!" Super Sonic exclaimed.

"Improvise!" hissed Super Shadow.

Shadow darted forwards, and did loops and spins around the Biolizard's head. Sonic flashed forwards as well and rammed into the eye-equivalent. The Biolizard yowled and let fly its fat legs at the two. Shadow and Sonic were able to dodge them easily enough.

"Sonic, I don't know how to fight him in this form," Shadow said, floating close to Sonic. "How do you?"

"Just like normal."

"But it's doing no effect!"

"What about the life-support?"

"I might not get close enough."

"You're invincible, Shadow. Just ram into its back! I'll distract it…"

Super Sonic darted forward, and weaved around the face of the Biolizard like a fly to a horse. The monster was snapping at Sonic, but kept falling short.

Shadow darted forwards already and closed in onto the life-support pod. The black pod in the middle seemed to suck any energy nearby, but Super Shadow put all his power into a spindash and smacked into the pod.

A ripple of solid black energy shot out of the life-support, throwing Sonic and Shadow clear back from the Biolizard. The great beast had roared in pain which they could hear, even in the vacuum of space.

"Well, that hurt him…" Sonic said, shaking to regain his senses. He felt that one.

"I don't understand it!" Shadow exclaimed. "What is causing that shockwave…?"

"I dunno, but we don't really have time to discuss it in committee!" Sonic snapped. "Let's get him!"

Sonic and Shadow charged in one solid bullet of energy. They smacked into the ribs of the Biolizard. They bounced off, but not without leaving behind a gouge, exposing some of the inner workings inside.

"Eww…" Sonic said nonchalantly.

"Look!" Shadow pointed at the wound, which was healing itself, as if it was in time-lapse.

"That's not cool!" Super Sonic scowled at the wound which was as good as new.

"Spare no mercy!"

The two Super-charged hedgehogs darted forwards again, and like chisels, they rammed over and over again into the porous flesh of the Biolizard. It did no effect.

"We need more power…"

"I'm not God, Shadow!" Sonic snapped back, smacking his hands against his hips. Then, he blanched. His hands fell across something around his waist. "Hey! How could I forget?"

Sonic crossed his arms, and snapped them back across his waist, as Shadow had observed. Suddenly, their single colors of white and yellow began flashing different colors, the colors of the Seven Chaos Emeralds.

"We're Hyper now! Now we're ready to kick some serious tail…hey!" Sonic noticed that spinning around the two were energy balls the same colors as their flashing ones, each one the size of softballs.

"It's the Chaos Emeralds!" Shadow exclaimed.

"I never saw that before…"

"I can feel the powers of the Chaos Emeralds. Now we have more weapons…Chaos Spear!" Hyper Shadow swept his hand towards the Biolizard.

A bolt of green lightning struck the monster's forehead, leaving a hideous burn across the pasty flesh.

"My turn! Sonic Wind!" Sonic swept his hand at the lizard. All felt supersonic winds whip them, and the Biolizard was nearly blown off his perch, but he refused to budge.

"Well, that didn't work…"

"Let me show you the power of Chaos!" Shadow said, observing the failure. "Chaos Control!"

Because they belonged to the same bond, both were effected by the time-altering effects, and both flashed forward to make some mincemeat as Shadow called it.

Hyper Shadow darted forward and started attacking the life-support, not the black stone (Shadow saw that it was a stone of some sort) but the tubes around it. Each tube broke soon after Shadow's relentless attacks. Sonic lent in his strength too. Pretty soon, the whole mass of tubes collapsed, revealing what the black stone looked like.

"Dude! It looks like a Chaos Emerald, but it's…black?"

"We must back away from it; I sense that will kill us if we touch it now…"

Sonic obeyed. Seven Emeralds he had heard of, but an eighth one for some reason made him nervous.

When time restarted, the Biolizard was in agony threefold. He was losing this battle, but he would not give up his task to destroy the world.

"It's weakening!" Sonic said.

"Yes, but to save the ARK, we MUST kill it."

"It's body's too tough to pierce through. We gotta kill it from the inside. Can't we like cook its brain or something…?" Hyper Sonic asked.

"I have an idea. It's a long shot, but it should work. You fly ahead to distract it, and I'll dive into its mouth and give it a strong taste of REAL Chaos…"

Hyper Sonic didn't think he'd have the nerve for such a plan. He didn't like the way it looked from the outside. What did the inside look like?

But there was no time for sick feelings. Shadow would carry it out, and so Sonic must too.

Sonic gulped. "You're with me?"

Shadow side-eyed Sonic. "To the death…"

They darted towards the head of the Biolizard, two multi-colored hedgehogs with a task to save the planet, headlong into a monster with a task to destroy the planet.

Hyper Sonic flew at the Biolizard's unprotected face. It opened its mouth to snap at Sonic, but instead, it got Shadow unintentionally.

Sonic waited with a sick stomach to see what would happened. Seconds felt like hours but suddenly, the Biolizard's head ripped open in a flash of red fire! The shockwave from inside sent Hyper Sonic spinning, but he straightened and flew back to the smouldering body of the Biolizard, to find Hyper Shadow cross-armed, victorious.

"Shadow! What did you do?"

"I went into the back of his throat, and performed what is called the Chaos Blast. It took concentration, but it worked. It's dead now, the pathetic lifeform…"

"Yeah," Sonic nodded. Both watched as the body of the para-natural slid off the nose of the Eclipse Cannon and fall towards the planet.

"The ARK's still falling!" Shadow exclaimed. "We must stop it now!"

"Can we Chaos Control something this big?" Sonic asked.

"It'll take much energy, but we must try…"

"Grab my hand!" Hyper Sonic reached out his hand. "Ready?"

"Ready!"

The glow increased beyond any mortal could bear, but Sonic and Shadow could endure it, since it was needed to save the world. "Now!"

"Chaos Control!" Both shouted at the same time.

The light shone out of them and enveloped the ARK. There was a pause, then the ARK vanished from it's dangerous course, within three miles of Möbius' surface.

For some reason, it didn't work as planned: The ARK returned to its stable orbit, but Sonic was the one who teleported the ARK, but Shadow had merely stopped time. So when the relocation was complete, only Hyper Sonic was there beside the Eclipse Cannon, still covered in some of the grime from the Biolizard.

"Shadow? Shadow!" Sonic yelled over and over. Sonic went into a dive towards the planet, eyes wide in fright, looking for Shadow.

He dropped a good five miles closer to the planet until he found Shadow. He was not moving…

"Shadow!" Hyper Sonic shook the unconscious hedgehog to wake him up. Shadow stirred, weakly, and opened his eyes a fraction…

"Sonic…is it safe? Is the ARK and the planet safe?" Sonic could barely hear the words.

"Yeah, what's up Shads?"

"I don't have much longer to live. My purpose was to save the planet from impending disaster, and I finished my task. I no longer have a purpose…"

"Shadow, don't talk like that! You gotta be able to live longer!"

"My promise to Maria was fulfilled. I only regret that I helped in the planet's near destruction…" Shadow rasped. "Tell everyone back on the planet, that I, Shadow the Hedgehog, friend of Maria, am sorry for what I nearly did…"

"Shads, please, don't give out on me now. I can't leave you here, Sonic! I gotta save you…"

"You…already did, Sonic. Your determination to help the people around you finally got through to my cold heart. You have a goal to keep the people safe. I kept my promise…keep yours, and maybe we'll see each other again…"

"Shads…" Sonic felt the tears choke him. "Don't…"

"Sayonara…Sonic the…Hedgehog…" Shadow breathed one last time.

Then gravity took over. Sonic had been holding onto Shadow's wrist all this time, and when he was within the pull of gravity, the brass wristband slid off and Shadow fell to the earth. Sonic darted towards him for a second, but something held him back. Shadow was dying, and nothing in the world could save him now.

Tears welded up in Sonic's eyes, as he cried for the first time in a long time. He made a friend in Shadow, but now he was gone…

Slowly, Hyper Sonic drifted his way towards the ARK. He would never see Shadow again…ever…

-----

From the inside of the ARK, everyone had witnessed the battle through the glass on the floor, and watched fascinated as the Biolizard's head split with fire. In that instance, the world suddenly seemed to get smaller, for then, Shadow and Sonic had teleported the ARK back into stable orbit, and Möbius was no longer filling up the view.

"They did it!" Tails exclaimed, bouncing over and over.

Everyone did various forms of celebration: the girls hugged each other over and over, the chao played "ring around the rosies," Robotnik and Metal-Sonic just stood there, looking emotionless, but were inwardly relieved. Rouge had sunk to the ground, thankful she was still breathing. Knuckles saw that everything seemed more cheery around ever since the Biolizard died and was smiling. At last, some joy in this ARK.

Back on the planet, the worst half-hour of the planet's life had ended. People watched as a madman, tied to a chair prophesied on how the space station would crash into the earth. Panic rose, tears were shed, children clung to their parents for moral support.

But all watched breathless as Sonic and Shadow killed the Biolizard and relocated the ARK within 90 seconds of the prophesied crash. All stood staring for a few seconds, but cheered for the valor of Sonic and Shadow.

Little did anyone know that with the relief and happiness that took over the planet and space around it, there was one speck of mortal sadness that nearly swallowed up the person it surrounded.

Back on the ARK, all jumped to see the door slide open again, and Sonic alone stood there, carrying the seven Emeralds. His spines were drooping, his eyes rimmed with red, his total manner, was disheartening.

Everyone rushed to Sonic, but when they saw his hollow face, they backed off.

Rouge had glanced down the hall, expecting to see the black-and-red hedgehog, but found no one. "Where is Shadow?"

Sonic stopped his dragging gait, then tossed something at Rouge, who caught it. It took a quick glance to realize what happened. "This is one of Shadow's bracelets…do you mean?"

Sonic stood staring out the window, arms crossed, silent as stone. Rouge involuntarily jumped when she saw that Sonic had taken up Shadow's normal stance.

Rouge help spread the word of Shadow's demise, and all understood Sonic's sadness. No one ventured to talk or encourage the hedgehog. Robotnik and Metal-Sonic left with their own thoughts.

Sonic's sorrow seemed to suck in the joyful spirits around, and all couldn't help glancing at Sonic once or twice.

Rouge walked up to Sonic, to see if she could cheer him up, but couldn't think of the words to say right away, so she merely stood beside him, fondling the brass bracelet. When she looked at Sonic again, she caught him looking at the bracelet and saw a tear running unchecked down his face.

"Do…you think that Shadow was the ultimate lifeform, Sonic?" Rouge asked, hesitatingly.

Sonic paused a moment, deciding on responding or not, but said finally, "I don't know, but he was what he was: a hedgehog who gave his life to save the planet for a promise. I wish I could do the same someday…" Sonic turned away again.

Sally walked up and hugged Sonic compassionately. Sonic would try anything to lessen the pain, and accepted it. Tails also ventured forward to do his part in comforting the poor hedgehog…

Rouge strode away, thinking on what Sonic just said. Both Sonic and Shadow worked selflessly to save an entire planet, and what was she doing here? To get paid. Shadow's death and Sonic's sorrow showed her how selfish she had been, weaseling herself onto the ARK to get the Chaos Emeralds. She was no better then Robotnik it felt, trying to get the Emeralds for herself.

"So, what's up with you, Rouge?"

Rouge turned to see that Knuckles had strode towards her and was trying to be nice to her. It took no knowledge to say that he was still a bit miffed about loosing the Master Emerald again before, but he was trying to keep it down.

"Oh, hi, Knuckles…"

Knuckles' hands were behind his back, and he seemed to be stalling. "Well, uh, I'm still sorry about hurting you…"

Rouge glanced at him. What was he on about?

"Well, I see that you really like jewels and I was wondering…"

"Yes?"

"Well, I'm sure you'd like this…"

Knuckles took out his hands and in them was the Purple Chaos Emerald. Rouge felt the lust swell in her, and she reached out to take it, but she thought she needed to say something first…

"Thank you, Knuckles, but I have something to say…I apologize for taking your Master Emerald, and I'm sorry for hurting you too. I know that you were trying to keep what was yours, and I'm sorry for not honoring that. I make a vow never to touch the jewels on Angel Island again…"

Knuckles felt flattered, and handed over the Emerald. "I'll hold you to that…gonna try hunting for more once we get down there?"

"No, I had enough of treasure hunting for right now. Besides, I have something else on my mind…" Rouge looked at the brass bracelet again.

Knuckles left, feeling perfectly silly but he was making amends for hurting her, and Rouge came back with something he didn't expect from a hunter: an apology.

Knuckles gathered the other Emeralds into his bag, and turned to the others. "Well, I'm getting tired of this place. Let's go back home…"

All noiselessly look at Knuckles, and there was a mutual agreement between all of them. They picked up their things, and tromped out the door. Sonic followed the rear, but before he left the room, he turned back to the inside of the room.

"Sayonara, Shadow…the Hedgehog…" Sonic choked on the words, and noiselessly followed the others.

Chapter 18: Is It Over?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The trip back to Möbius was different then going back. Some played in the anti-gravity field while others remained buckled, silent. It took four hours to return to the planet, and the human space agency down there granted them landing since they were the heroes of the planet.

News got out unfortunately, and at once as they got out of the shuttle, they were mobbed by reporters. Thankfully, the President (who was there to greet them) had his Secret Service surround them so the reporters wouldn't overwhelm then, much to the relief of the Möbians.

They were ushered into the black limousine the president had, where the Secretary of Defense also was located. The President offered his deep thanks to the Möbians, and said they were welcome to come back to Sapphire City whenever they chose to.

Sally, being the political head of the group, thanked him cordially.

Sonic was the only one acting strangely, at least to Tails. He was quiet, and crestfallen. Tails was worried; Sonic was usually the first to gloat at the adventure, but he was like another hedgehog the kitsune did not know.

The President also said that he would hold a major press conference to honor the people who saved the planet from the ARK's fall.

All were tired for it was after midnight by now and all were tired from their adventure. The girls went into their room and nearly all fell asleep at once. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and the two chao kind of took their time. Sonic still hadn't said a word and noiselessly slipped under the covers. He dozed off…

Tails turned to Knuckles, who was also looking at Sonic with concern spelled out clearly on his face.

"You're worried about Sonic too…" Tails said.

Knuckles glanced at Tails and said nothing, but the look said everything.

"I am too. What are we going to do?"

Knuckles shrugged. "He's feeling the same thing I did when I lost my father. I didn't know how I coped with it that long ago. It was only 10 years ago when that happened. Just give him space; he'll come around."

Tails looked back and began to feel the same feelings he did when he thought he lost Sonic. To him, it seemed that everyone experienced loss of some kind. Knuckles had lost his father when he was younger, Tails and everyone else experienced the loss when they thought Sonic was dead, and now Sonic was feeling it.

He began regretting ever laying his eyes on the ARK, but there was nothing to be done about it now. What was done was done…

Tails pulled off his shoes and socks and slithered under the covers, feeling tired. Frosty climbed up onto the bed and climbed under the covers with Tails. She wouldn't let Tails out of her sight if she could help it, after today, she felt very insecure.

"Good night, Knuckles…" said Tails, before closing his eyes.

Tails heard the Echidna breathe the words "if only it was" before he fell asleep.

Knuckles climbed into the sleeping bag, his arm resting on the pack that contained the Master Emerald and the six other Emeralds. He fell asleep at once.

Dash climbed noiselessly onto the bed of his master. He felt Sonic's sorrow as he slept and climbed into his arms to see if he could give him any comfort. There, the blue chao slept the rest of the night.

Thus ended what was probably the worst day of Möbius in modern history.

-----

Interestingly, Amy woke up first and she couldn't stand lying in bed until everyone else was awake. She quietly slithered out of bed, slipped on her default-red dress, tidied up her hair in the bathroom, dressed it with her ribbons, and went outside; taking her boots so she wouldn't wake anyone else.

It was not far after 6 AM when she had gotten up, so not many were already out and about. Amy took the stairs since he figured that she might fall asleep in the elevator, and the walk would clear her head.

She went into the hotel lobby where breakfast was already being served in the buffet. She went to serve herself with a sausage patty, scrambled eggs and a cup of cranberry juice. Word had gotten around about the ARK incident so the people of the resident gave her a free breakfast.

After her first few bites, she realized how hungry she really was; she went through the buffet twice more before her appetite was satisfied. That was a good thirty minutes later.

Appetite gone, she sat at her table, mildly playing with her utensils and began thinking about the previous day. Most of the previous evening she spent brooding, mostly at feeling left out of the excitement. If she could beat Zero when she was twelve, she could handle other things too, she thought. Then she stumbled upon Shadow, alone and brooding as well. She pleaded with him, and at last Shadow completed, but not how she had expected.

The thought of him made her memory flash forward to seeing Sonic, hollow and sad. He wanted to be left very much alone after that. Amy was burning with curiosity to find out what happened out there. But something in her heart held her in check. Sonic needed to be alone more then anything right now. Give him that, it told her.

That thought made Amy think. Every time she was with Sonic, she always hugged him and told him on how much she loved him. She also remembered how much he resented her for it, but pretended to hide it.

That thought hit Amy in a funny way. She always liked Sonic, and wanted earnestly in her heart to sometime be united with him, but thinking about him, she realized what she was really doing to Sonic. She was demanding her own way like a spoiled child.

You dummy! thought Amy. Sonic doesn't like you that much because you're too selfish! You treated him like a huge toy you always wanted, and look what you did to him!

She felt angry at herself. Sonic didn't deserve what she did to him, always being the annoying brat that follows the hero around. To life to love she always believed…

If she wanted Sonic, maybe she should try a different approach, like maybe caring for him more as a person then a mere object to love.

Poor Sonic…maybe she should tell him on what she thought about. That princess Sally treated Sonic like a person, and she earned Sonic's respect. Maybe she should try that…

She was in this mode of thought, when she heard footsteps coming towards her. It was Tails and Frosty, looking tired and in desperate need of anything energizing.

"Hi, Tails," Amy said. "The bacon's fresh; it's pretty good."

"Good, I'll eat anything…" Frosty said in his place.

Tails took up a plate and loaded his plate, which mostly consisted of bacon, sausage and eggs. There was a blueberry muffin, but that was all. He ate greedily, and Frosty got herself dirty from bacon grease. Amy watched them, and then retired to the hotel lobby. The TV was on there, and she felt more like watching TV then being with Tails. Besides, she had more thinking to do…

When she left, Frosty said to Tails. "Hey, did you notice strange about Amy this morning?"

Tails swallowed a mouthful of bacon before answering. "Well, she was up pretty early."

"No, about her. Did you see something strange in her eyes?"

Tails shrugged. "She looked the same to me…"

"You boys have no insight. I could see something in her eyes. She had been thinking about something very important to her, and it made her…lonely in a way."

Tails answered, "You girls can see too much."

"Well, if that's the way you feel about this whole thing…" Frosty snatched up a tender piece of bacon and gobbled it up.

-----

The next several hours saw the rest coming out at different times. Knuckles was next and he helped himself to the fruit bar, as did Sally, Cream and Cheese soon afterwards. All wondered about and watched as Frosty and Cheese frolicked in the outdoor pool.

Dash sunned himself on the chairs, but if one looked at the right time, he'd catch him looking up at the higher windows, wondering which one was Sonic's, and wondering if he was all right.

Tails had the roughest morning, for when he was in the parking garage with the Cyclone, working with it, when he was mobbed by lurking reporters, who were "conveniently" hanging around the hotel, waiting for one of the Möbians to venture out.

The poor kitsune reemerged inside, grumpy at being pounced on by the reporters like a lion would do to its meat. He warned the others about the reporters.

Knuckles avoided the reporters by climbing to the top of the hotel and gliding from one building to another. He missed his island something terrible, and dearly wanted to return. He could see it in the ocean, sitting, but in his pack were six of the Chaos Emeralds. Last time he took six Emeralds to his Island, it crashed down again. He didn't want to go through that again.

He called up the Chaotix and told them that he would be a while returning to Angel Island, and said to continue guarding Hidden Palace.

He immediately began wondering about Rouge. Would she keep her promise about never returning to Hidden Palace? He also remembered giving her the Purple Chaos Emerald, out of making amends. Could she use it like Shadow could use the Emeralds?

Probably not. She was only interested in them due to being a jewel-addict.

Cream sat alone in a corner. She was only 7 and had been through a lot in less then 30 hours. She reflected on being separated from her mother and father at such a young age, and had met the very reason why she had been sent south to the Knothole Freedom Fighters. She stroked one of her long ears nervously.

She didn't like Dr. Eggman. She didn't like that blue metal hedgehog that loomed over her like a phantom in a dream. She had nightmares about him last night and Sally had slept with her to comfort her. She dearly missed her mother and father, even though she only knew them for two of her seven years.

The adventure had changed her life, and she ever wondered if anything would return to normal…

-----

Robotnik and Metal-Sonic had escaped the ARK unnoticed, and had relocated into a base built in an iceberg in North Möbius. Robotnik escaped to his chambers to brood about the last few days.

Metal-Sonic stood in the labs, thankful to be in a cold environment instead of a desert like the Dagro Hidden Base. He soon would have to return to clean out the base.

The Mystic Ruins base was still operative, but Robotnik didn't want to go back there. Metal-Sonic had preferred it due to its seclusion, and its ideal scientific labs. Most of the other bases his master and he had been were basic, while the Mystic Ruins base or Final Egg as it was called was I reality a super-base, like the Death Egg was to be, and the ARK if Robotnik had properly taken over it.

The robot pondered what Shadow had told him in the control chambers the day after the Eclipse Cannon had destroyed the moon, about leaving his master. Metal-Sonic was getting stronger and faster each upgrade. That option was very feasible, but he still needed Eggman and his facilities before even acting.

He uploaded the files that Shadow had lent him about the bio-metal that Professor Gerald had created. According to the data, it was a fairly simple metal to create, but it needed the proper facilities. A nanotech facility would be needed, as well as a vast supply of nanites.

Maybe he should journey down to Final Egg and see how close he could make it into a nanotech facility and use it. The more he thought about the bio-metal and its capabilities, the more he began to want it deeply.

For years, he had been upgrading himself by the simple robotic industry, but when the doctor had upgraded him with gelatinous nanite cartilage inside his joints, the metal of his outer shell looked ancient, like ENIAC would be to a Palm Pilot.

He would research more into this bio-metal and Professor Gerald's projects more…it was a shame to lose Shadow; he would've been a great asset.

-----

Sonic stirred at noon, for the outside light had crept in now and radiated him with the warmth. Sonic crawled out from underneath the blankets, had a shower and slipped on his shoes. He crept downstairs, feeling reluctant to say anything to the others, for they were bound to ask about…

The thought made his throat constrict. He shoved it back down in his memory, not wanting to start his day so poorly.

He reached the lunchroom and found that everyone was having a big lunch, complete with various dishes. Knuckles was eating a salad topped with chopped ham with a low-fat vinaigrette dressing. Tails was feasting on spaghetti covered in parmesan cheese. The fur around his face was messed up with the pasta sauce. Amy was enjoying a nice small dish of human oriental food, complete with moo goo gai pan with a side of fried wan tan (she had it delivered from a local Chinese buffet shop). Cream and Sally had split a garden salad, but Cream had a carrot cake slice, while Sally was slowly eating almond spice cake. Cheese was eating a large ripe tomato, and expressed his appreciation greatly. Frosty had wolfed down a meat-heavy hamburger, cut into slices for easier eating, while Dash was still delicately eating a dish of shrimp scampi.

Tails looked up and saw Sonic tromping his way. "Hi, Sonic! Go ahead and order. The people got wind of our stuff and let us eat for free…"

Sonic eyed the food and his appetite awoke with a vengeance. "Where's the menu?" Sonic sat down.

Tails handed his a menu, and for a second studied him out. Sonic still had that hollow look, but it was partially hidden.

Sonic ordered a dish of lasagna with a side dish of French Fries, drenched in melting cheddar cheese, a fizzy orange soda to drink on the side. His order took a bit getting there, but when it did, he ate, and I mean ate. The lasagna was spared no mercy, and neither was the fries, which covered in cheddar cheese is delightful.

Everyone was talking at the dinner table, but Sonic continued to eat. He eyed everyone, waiting. Just wait, they would ask…

When he finished, he still didn't feel ready to face the day, and retreated into the lobby and plopped down into the sofa. He would've gone unnoticed, but Amy had been thinking hard about what she wanted to say to Sonic, and now that Sonic was alone and not as melancholy as before, she thought it would be a good time. She still felt nervous; you could hardly blame her for that.

Sonic was watching the TV suspended from the ceiling, when Amy came in. Sonic didn't seem to acknowledge her presence until she spoke.

"Uh, Sonic?"

Sonic's ear cocked in her direction.

"Mind if I sit down?"

He thought about it, and decided he didn't care. "Go ahead…"

She sat down, on the sofa, on the opposite side of the sofa as Sonic was. He didn't really notice.

"I must say something to you, but you must not interrupt me or I'll never finish. Agreed?"

Oh boy, he thought. Here it comes… "Shoot."

"Sonic, I...I know--that is--I want to say," Amy stammered. "I want to say that--that I'm sorry…"

That got Sonic's attention. "For what?"

"Well, for treating you like an idol." Amy was blushing. "I was thinking. I wondered in my mind why you never liked me…"

"Hey, don't put it that--"

"You said you'd let me finish. I know that I've been an annoying little brat ever since I met you. You always had to rescue me from Dr. Eggman and Metal-Sonic, and I always thought I could make it up to you, but I keep making a mess of things.

I'm sorry for being a selfish jerk. I really hope to make it up to you, for being a brat. If you don't like me, just say so. I don't care. I'm getting what I deserve…go on…"

Sonic was speechless. He never thought he'd see Amy bare her soul like this, and it gave him a mind wipe. He started stammering. "Well--uh--gee Ames--I--uh--I don't--I don't know what to say…"

Amy didn't respond, but Sonic noticed that she had her handkerchief out.

"Well, I see that you noticed that I did get ticked at your--uh--spirit, and I tried to hide it. I should--uh--I should say sorry to, for not being so open with you."

Amy looked up.

"I'm sorry too, for just treating you like a jerk, and not saying it like it was…"

Amy smiled.

"So, what do we do now?" she asked, a tear of happiness running down her cheek. She didn't expect Sonic to understand so.

"Well, we could be better friends…" Sonic smiled, feeling a little silly.

"You know…" Amy started. "I'd like that. I still like you, but I'm going to try my best to treat you like a friend, instead of an idol…"

"I'd like that. Otherwise, I thought about barricading my room with bear traps."

Amy laughed, and Sonic laughed too. Ah, it felt good to laugh.

"Hey, wanna go somewhere, like the mall or something?" Sonic smiled.

"Yeah, let's. I heard there's a sports shoe sale there…"

"Now you're talking…"

Sonic didn't have as much fun with Amy after that little talk before. He actually enjoyed the window shopping. Amy tried on almost every dressed in the store, and Sonic tried a few shoes, but said they looked tacky, despite Amy's reassurance that they weren't.

They had run into reporters outside the mall, and Sonic escaped with Amy on his shoulders on the Speed Highway. He reached the hotel and stayed there.

When the sun began lowering in the west, it found Sonic and Knuckles on the beach deck, watching everyone frolic on the sands. Amy and Cream had built a sandcastle, and wailed as the tide was coming in.

"Doesn't look like the tides are harmed any…" said Knuckles.

"I suppose the moon didn't really shrink," said Sonic. "It's just got a messy makeup job."

Knuckles chuckled quietly and eyed the moon; scarred, but didn't seem any less majestic.

At the mention of Robotnik, Sonic was reminded of the previous night, and his eyes clouded over….Knuckles had noticed.

"You miss him, don't you…?"

Sonic looked at Knuckles, tearing slightly, and nodded. "He was cool…"

Knuckles patted him on the back. "If it hurts too much, you don't have to tell me, Sonic. I didn't want to talk about my dad's disappearance to anyone for a while too."

"And you got over it well enough…"

"Kind of…" Knuckles looked at the horizon, and saw the Island's mountains washed in the warm orange of the setting sun.

"You want to go back, don't you?"

Knuckles looked down towards the oceans again. "Yeah, it calls to me…"

"What's keeping ya?"

"Sally said that she received a call from the President, and he's going to give us a special honor at his press conference, and she requested that all of us be there."

"When's that?"

"Tonight, 9:30…"

"Wow, that's not too far…" Sonic looked towards Angel Island again, a diamond in the sea it seemed like. "I hope she doesn't want me to talk about…" Sonic choked.

"Maybe if you told her, she'll not make you say it twice."

"I don't have the nerve…could I tell you, and could you tell Sally?"

"Are you sure you're up to it?"

"I gotta tell someone, and you're closer…" Sonic smiled.

Knuckles smiled, but sobered. "If you must…"

In a few minutes, Sonic was telling about the Biolizard, the going into Hyper mode and using a powerful Chaos Control that sent Shadow over the edge. There, he stopped, not willing to say more, but there was nothing more to be said. Knuckles nodded understandably.

"We'd better get ready for the press…"

"The cage of tigers you mean…" Sonic said, wiping his nose with his glove.

Knuckles found Sally and relayed the story of the battle to her, and she understood. She would give the story at the conference, under the condition that Sonic would not be pestered about it.

The hour came, and they entered the limo again. Dash kept playing with the automatic window opener all the way. The President smiled at the chao's play.

When they arrived at the press conference location, outside the Capitol Building (built after the Perfect Chaos incident, replacing the City Hall), they were meet by a host of reporters. Security drove them back, and all marched down the red carpet laid for them. Sally was dressed in a splendid gown of bright blue, sequined and it shined like diamonds under the lights. Amy was also dressed in a red dress that she had rented from a tuxedo/dress store, with a red rose in her hair. Sonic thought it made her look older.

Sonic noticed Rouge was there too, on stage and looking official. She was paid handsomely by the Agency for her job well done about bringing in the information about Project Shadow and had purchased an evening gown to wear for the occasion, black and flowing.

On the platform, the President once again showed his approval and eternal thanks for saving the planet. The Möbians and the chao were seated in a neat row behind the podium. The lights were annoyingly bright, and the crowd's cheering got on some of the nerves of the Möbians, but they knew that this was how the humans gave thanks in mass.

Sally stepped forwards and gave an modest speech, about what happened on the ARK, Robotnik, and how Sonic and Shadow, had saved the ARK.

Sonic glanced at an empty seat that was beside him, thinking about who could and should be sitting there.

There were dancers, special music artists and a fireworks show in their honor. The festivities ended at midnight, and all trouped back to the hotel to get a decent night's sleep, except Knuckles who couldn't stand another moment away from the Island.

He met with Sonic and gave him five of the Chaos Emeralds. He said he'd keep the light blue one on the Island, for the Chaotix deserved something for stoking it out on the Island alone.

He left shortly after, and Sonic went to bed.

-----

The next morning showed that Angel Island had risen out of the water and into the sky; drifting south into winter territory. Sonic watched it go from the beach deck. In his hand was the Blue Chaos Emerald, and occasionally, he'd glance at it. Every time he would, the memory of Shadow and how he died would pop up renewed.

It didn't help that last night, he had a nightmare when he and Shadow switched places in the battle, and that Shadow was the one trying to convince Sonic to continue living.

"C'mon, hedgehog. He's gone and you can't bring him back…so just deal with it…" Sonic would often say quietly to himself, but it didn't lessen the inner turmoil.

He looked towards where north would be. Knuckles mentioned he was homesick for the Island and Sonic was feeling the same about Knothole. He hoped they'd be going soon; he really needed a break from all this.

Interestingly enough, Sally was thinking the same. This adventure taxed their spirits greatly and she reasoned that familiar grounds were needed. She said as soon as everyone was packed, they all could get ready to go back to the Great Forest.

Thus, three hours later, the heroes said goodbye to the city of Sapphire City and made the trek north. Tails carried the chao in the Tornado, Sally had Cream in a hovercraft she invested in and Sonic went on foot, thankful for the chance to be alone.

They reached the outskirts of the Great Forest as the warm September sun was looking down on them. All could feel that they were close, and eagerly just wanted to rest.

Later, they made it to the quiet little hideout of Knothole. All there greeted them back (they had seen the satellite broadcast about the Eclipse Cannon and the crazy old man) and were happy to see them again.

Sonic made for the privacy of his hut, and he climbed into his bed and lay there. He was home finally, and he just wanted to stay there.

Normal activity went back into motion a few days after the heroes returned, and the first thing was preparing for the winter. All began working hard to prepare for whatever Mother Nature would show her fury in the cold, harsh season.

Tails used the Chaos Emeralds to test something he had been working on: a chaos-energy reliant power system. Knothole had some electricity, but suppose the blizzards knocked it out. The Chaos Emeralds would be there to back it up. He had tried using the fake Yellow Emerald, but it wasn't as strong as he thought it was.

Dash and Frosty were gathering the fruits and vegetables in the gardens. It's quite amusing to see a chao trying to roll a pumpkin out of the patch, considering that the pumpkin is larger then the chao.

Sally oversaw the pickling and preserving, making sure that they would have enough. The hot summer seemed to promise a hard winter, and she was taking no chances.

Sonic helped out, but the adventure had taken the edge off of his spirit, and me would me most found sulking and brooding in some quiet place. Tails grew concerned as the weeks passed…

September ended, then came October. Knuckles and the Chaotix teleported in on the teleporter outside Knothole and helped out with the harvests and the maintenance, which dealt most with fixing up the old sheds or building new ones. Shingling was a big issue as well. Charmy helped with harvesting the fruit trees. The Floating Island didn't need winter preparation due to the fact that it could move across the world in a month and in the winter, it was in the tropics.

The kitchen smelled of jams and jellies that seemed to literally pour out of the room. The smell always gave anyone an appetite.

Knuckles had gathered honey from the hives of the tropical bees that live on his Island and graciously shared it with the Freedom Fighters there. The honey was the best then that store-bought honey you'd find.

October turned to November before many realized it, and the winter preparations intensified. All looked eagerly at Thanksgiving marked on the calendar, and thinking about all the food they gathered, they couldn't help but think about the feasts.

Frosty, who had the ability to shape-shift with the White Emerald she loved to use, used it to hunt down for meat storage. Meat wasn't the biggest favorite among the Möbians, since most of them were either rodent or avian, but there were some that had a taste for good meat. Tails and Frosty always favored meat, as did a friend named Rocco Raccoon that liked meat too.

The days passed and the day of thanks came closer, all were so excited about this day that it nearly dominated all of the thoughts of the residents.

Only one didn't seem very happy with the holiday, and that was Sonic. Ever since Shadow died, he really didn't see a reason to be overly thankful, and spent most of the time in his cabin. Dash couldn't understand why Sonic was taking this so hard; Shadow was on the side of the guys that nearly killed his master.

Then, one day, Knothole had a visitor; a rather unexpected visitor.

It was on a cold, crisp morning after one of the first frosts. Tails and Frosty were playing in a nest of leaves that they had raked up. They could smell blackberry jam from the nearby kitchen and it made their stomachs growl…

It was probably fortunate that there was a strong smell; otherwise what would've happened next may have never happened.

The white chao had climbed out of the leaf pile, giggling like the girl she was, when she looked towards the forest and was startled to see that something in the woods was moving. Her surprised squeak was heard by Tails and he looked in the same direction.

There was a rustling and crackling of dried leaves coming from the forest. Tails wondered if he should tell somebody…

Suddenly, the thing was in view. It was a dirty black, caked with mud and looking nearly dead on its feet, for it stumbled as it walked. Tails had to look twice at it until he could grasp more of the features. Now that it was closer, it looked like a hedgehog. At first Tails figured it to be Sonic, but he was in his cabin, brooding.

"It--it couldn't be…" Tails stared wide-eyed at the stranger. It was impolite to stare, but if you knew who it was, could you blame him?

Frosty gasped in recognition. "It's Shadow!"

The figure fell forward onto his face, and yes, the spines of this strange hedgehog were lined with red. It HAD to be him!

Tails dashed forward, his little legs carrying him as much as they darest. He dropped down onto his knees and shook the hedgehog. "Shadow! Shadow, is it you?"

The black hedgehog stirred, and he turned his head to look at Tails. Shadow looked like he hadn't eaten in days…

"Where…am I?"

"You're in Knothole! I don't believe it, but you're here! You're here! You're alive! Sonic thought you were--" Tails blanched. "Sonic! I must get him!" Tails zoomed away in a flurry of feet, nearly flying flat on his face at the first stride. Frosty was trying to help the emaciated hedgehog get up.

Tails hit the door running, and not bothering to knock, he flew in, his eyes wide in astonishment and excitement, which met interestingly with Sonic's eyes low with depression.

"Sonic! You'll never guess to just dropped into Knothole!" Tails was spinning his tails, and not realizing it.

Sonic didn't stir much, "Who?"

Tails picked up Sonic's hand and was trying to drag him out the door. "You won't believe me if I told you. Come on!"

"All right, all right, I'll--" The words died on Sonic's lips as someone came to the door. Outlined by the sun, the lanky hedgehog looked even blacker, but Sonic could see enough.

A tear ran unchecked down Sonic's cheek. "Shadow?"

"It is!" said a high voice nearby. It was Frosty who had been standing next to Shadow's ankle unnoticed. "I'd recognize his smell anywhere…"

"Shadow…how…?"

"I am here, Sonic…"

Sonic was standing up; he felt like such a klutz now. "How did you survive? I saw you fall…I still have the bracelet…" Sonic had the brass bracelet in his hand. "You fell…"

Shadow sighed. "Through fire…and…I can't remember the rest…I was cared by a large cat that lived on the earth below. He nursed me to health and I remembered what you tried to tell me. I'm still needed here…"

Sonic stood staring for a whole minute. This was surreal…Shadow, thought dead, was standing here in front of him…

"Shadow…I…I don't know what to say…I thought you were dead, man…"

"So you did, but the time for mourning has past, Sonic. The night is over; this is the morning…"

Sonic suddenly snapped awake. "Dude, you're starving to death. Let's get you some food." Sonic squeezed past Sonic and darted away. One could hear him spreading the joyous proclamation from far a ways…

"Shadow's alive! He's come back! He's all right!"

Tails smiled. Sonic was happy again… "I'm glad you're back, Shadow."

"I am too. Maria had her purpose to spread her happiness, and she made me want to do the same." Shadow looked down to see that Sonic had dropped the bracelet; he gingerly picked it up and slid onto his wrist. He saw this as a little symbolic.

"C'mon, I'll find you something to eat…" Tails said, taking Shadow by the hand and led him out.

-----

The news had spread like wildfire, and all were eager to see Shadow the Hedgehog, the hedgehog that helped Sonic save the planet.

Shadow was wearing Sonic's old pair of shoes, for Rotor was trying to fix up his hoverskates, since the entry into the atmosphere nearly disintegrated them.

Sonic felt like a huge emotional burden had been lifted from his soul. He was like his old self again: joyful, pulling harmless pranks and always making someone laugh. Shadow wondered how someone so festive could sink into depression like he did, but after some thinking on how he lost Maria, he saw the signs that matched his own. Sonic just reacted differently.

Thanksgiving finally came and there was a grand feast. There was the sweet potato pie, the cranberry pie, the creamed corn and oh! You never smelled such delicious turkey in your life! Shadow was pretty much the head of attention and received two large helping of the turkey. Everyone talked, laughed and ate, especially ate. Shadow never remembered eating like this before.

That evening found him and Sonic on the high hill, admiring the sunset. Shadow had received his hoverskates back and was feeling good about that; though he didn't say anything, Sonic's old shoes felt cramped.

"Shads, I never really said how glad I am, seeing you alive…"

"I'm just glad that you were forgiving about what I intended to do."

"As far as I'm concerned, I forgave you when you help fight the Biolizard."

Shadow shivered suddenly. "I'd like it if you didn't mention that dreadful creature…"

Sonic looked down. "Sorry…"

"It's okay; I know you meant well…"

Both looked at the setting sun as it sank lower and lower in the sky. Despite the growing chill, Shadow could sense that something or someone was looking down on him from above, smiling…

There was a rustle from the breeze that felt heavenly, and he thought he heard the word "remember" in the wind. He glanced at Sonic, but he must not have heard it.

Sonic shivered from the chill. "C'mon, let's go back to Knothole. Can't have Sally roasting our hides because we were having a night out."

Shadow's gaze followed Sonic. His choice of words was strange to him, but he figured he must bear with his speech as well as his manner.

The two hedgehogs disappeared into the forest and the gathering darkness, just as the last little bit of the sun sank beneath the horizon.

Thus our tale has ended. Should it be my lot to tell you about what will happen with the newly restored friendship of these two, I will be glad to, but for now, I wish you reader, a fond farewell.

**THE END**


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